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ECONOMIC  AND  SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF 
CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA 


1880-1915 


BY 


W.  SCOTT  BOYCE 


SUBMIITED  IN  PARTIAL  FULFILMENT  OF  THE  REQUIREMENTS 

FOR  THE  DEGREE  OF  DOCTOR  OF  PHILOSOPHY 

IN  THE 

Faculty  of  Political  Science 
Columbia  University 


OF  THE  >^ 

UNIVERSITY     - 


NEW  YORK 
I917 


EXCHANGE 


t 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/economicsocialhiOOboycrich 


ECONOMIC  AND  SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF 
CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA 


1880-1915 


BY 

W.  SCOTT  BOYCE 


SUBMITTED  IN  PARTIAL  FULFILMENT  OF  THE  REQUIREMENTS 

FOR  THE  DEGREE  OF  DOCTOR  OF  PHILOSOPHY 

IN  THE 

Faculty  of  Poutical  Science 
Columbia  University 


NEW  YORK 
I917 


'    Z   ♦•    *',  ^»    d    5  "3  •*     1 


^.^'^^ 


Ma 

My  Devoted 
FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

NEITHER  OF  WHOM  HAS  EVER 
STOOD   IN  MY  WAY 


3SG505 


PREFACE 

When  I  first  planned  this  study,  it  was  my  ambition  to 
write  the  economic  and  social  history  of  Chowan  County 
from  the  date  of  its  first  permanent  white  settlement  down 
to  the  present  time.  Preliminary  investigations,  however, 
soon  convinced  me  that  nothing  like  a  complete  history  along 
the  lines  I  proposed  could  be  written  for  the  entire  period 
of  white  occupation.  Since  Byrd's  work,  published  in 
1736,  comparatively  few  economic  or  social  facts  have  been 
recorded.  The  writings  on  this  section  since  then,  that  have 
been  preserved,  are  principally  of  either  a  political  or  a 
military  nature;  hence  any  alleged  economic  or  social  his- 
tory of  the  county  covering  the  last  half  of  the  eighteenth, 
and  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century,  written  now, 
would,  it  seems  to  me,  be  largely  a  matter  of  pure  inference. 
I  have  therefore  thought  best  to  begin  my  account  with  a 
period  well  within  the  memory  of  those  now  living.  Some 
of  the  advantages  of  this  policy  are  quite  obvious.  In  the 
first  place  I  am  then  setting  down  facts  attested,  not  by  one 
individual,  but  by  as  many  individuals  as  I  have  thought 
necessary  to  interview.  Furthermore,  the  interpretations  of 
these  facts  can  be  had  from  many  angles,  and,  what  is  more, 
from  those  who  have  played  important  roles  in  the  history 
of  the  county  during  the  era  under  discussion. 

The  particular  year  (1880)  chosen  as  one  limit  of  the 
period  is  of  special  advantage  in  that  it  is  a  census  year,  and 
thus  certain  data,  otherwise  unobtainable,  are  furnished 
ready  to  hand.  Many  of  these  census  data  are  also  valuable 
both  in  checking  up  data  gathered  from  the  people  by  me 
5]  5 


PREFACE 


[6 

personally,  and  in  checkijfig  up  my  own  observations  and 
conclusions.  The  time  when  this  sketch  begins  is  suffi- 
ciently far  removed  from^the  close  of  the  Civil  War  for 
conditions  to  have  become  fairly  normal.  This  in  itself  is 
of  no  small  advantage.  \^hat  is  probably  ^the  greatest  ad- 
vantage of  all,  however,  from  the  standpoint  of  whatever 
value  this  study  may  possess,  is  the  fact  that  I  myself  was  at 
this  time  already  on  the  sceiae  of  action,  and  have  personally 
observed  and  experienced  the  major  part  of  the  processes, 
conditions,  and  transformations  herein  recorded. 

Although  this  period  of  three  and  a  half  decades  is  a  com- 
paratively short  one,  it  nevertheless  encompasses  the  ma- 
jority of  the  most  important  of  the  economic  and  social 
changes  which  have  taken  place  since  the  first  quarter  of 
the  eighteenth  century.  Many  of  the  customs,  conditions, 
and  methods  of  living  in  i88o  were  quite  similar  to  those 
described  by  Lawson  and  by  Byrd,  writing  between  1700  and 
1740. 

During  the  period  under  discussion,  in  manufactures  the 
people  largely  passed  from  the  domestic  to  the  factory  type ; 
in  agriculture,  from  the  hand  tool  to  the  machine  tool,  and 
from  man  power  to  that  of  animal,  steam,  and  gas;  in 
education,  from  the  education  of  the  few  to  the  education 
of  the  many,  and  from  a  non-reading  to  a  reading  public ;  in 
commerce,  from  the  condition  of  a  high  degree  of  neighbor- 
hood self-sufficiency,  and  even  individual  family  self- 
sufficiency,  to  that  of  contributing  to  and  drawing  from  the 
markets  of  the  world;  in  gratification  of  wants,  from  a 
pain  to  a  pleasure  economy. 

The  information  which  follows  with  reference  to  my  fit- 
ness to  do  what  is  here  undertaken,  is  in  recognition  of  every 
reader's  right  to  know  what  has  been  the  opportunity  of  an 
author  to  obtain  a  knowledge  of  the  facts  whereof  he  pre- 
sumes to  speak,  his  ability  faithfully  to  describe  and  correctly 


7]  PREFACE  7 

to  interpret  them,  and  the  likelihood  of  his  sO'  doing.  Chowan 
is  the  county  in  which  I  was  born  and  reared,  but  the  past 
eighteen  years  I  have  spent  chiefly  in  living  and  in  traveling 
in  other  parts  of  the  country.  Much  of  this  living  has  been 
not  simply  "  among,"  but  actually  "  with,"  the  people.  In 
fact  I  have  had  occasion  to  break  bread  with  people  from 
practically  every  state  in  the  Union,  and  that  under  their 
own  roofs.  Although  the  more  recent  years  have  been 
spent  largely  in  other  portions  of  the  country,  frequent  visits 
to  Chowan  have  kept  me  in  touch  with  events  there.  More- 
over, the  summers  of  1912,  1913,  and  the  summer  and  fall 
of  19 14,  were  spent  traveling  among,  and  stopping  with, 
the  people  in  the  county,  for  the  express  purpose  of  securing 
first-hand  knowledge  of  present-day  conditions. 

It  has  been  far  easier  for  me,  being  a  native  son,  to  obtain 
the  unvarnished  facts  than  it  would  be  for  a  stranger,  and 
being  a  product  of  the  times  and  conditions  which  I  presume 
here  to  portray  should  make  me  more  sympathetic  in  my  in- 
terpretation of  these  facts  than  would  be  an  outsider  who 
had  had  only  a  brief  sojourn  in  the  county.  On  the  other 
hand,  my  rather  wide  business  and  social  relations  with  those 
in  various  parts  of  this  and  other  countries  should  give  me  a 
greater  perspective,  a  higher  degree  of  accuracy,  and  a 
keener  sense  of  justice  regarding  the  interpretations,  than  is 
likely  to  be  possessed  by  any  one  who  has  always  resided  in 
the  locality. 

From  the  foregoing  the  reader  naturally  would  expect 
the  method  of  arriving  at  the  alleged  facts  to  have  been 
largely  that  of  observation  and  personal  interview,  and  in 
this  he  is  quite  right.  It  has  not  only  been  my  privilege  to 
witness  practically  every  process  and  condition  herein  men- 
tioned or  described,  but  it  has  also  been  my  fortune  to  have 
been  directly  concerned  with  most  of  them.  The  only  thing 
at  all  in  question  is  the  degree  of  their  generalness,  and  here 


8  PREFACE  [8 

every  estimate  of  mine  has  been  checked  up  and  corrobor- 
ated by  persons  who  are  admittedly  among  the  most  intelli- 
gent and  scientific  residents  of  the  county. 

In  most  cases,  estimates  have  been  given  in  figures  rather 
than  in  such  vague  terms  as  "  a  great  many,"  "  a  large 
number,"  "  only  a  few  " — terms  which  connote  different 
things  tO'  different  individuals.  Because  of  the  method  fol- 
lowed, the  reader  will  at  least  not  have  to  guess  at  what  the 
estimates  are. 

In  considering  the  estimates  one  should  ever  remember 
the  following: 

1.  That  all  of  them,  unless  otherwise  stated,  are  for  the 
entire  population,  including  colored  as  well  as  white. 

2.  That  the  colored  element  constitutes  more  than  half 
the  population. 

3.  That  only  a  half-century  ago  practically  the  entire 
colored  contingent  was  cast  adrift  with  nothing  but  its 
bare  hands  to  earn  a  living  in  a  territory  already  completely 
appropriated  by  the  whites ;  and  that  while  they  have  made 
a  creditable  showing,  thus  far  but  comparatively  few  (pos- 
sibly five  per  cent)  have  attained  to  the  degree  of  wealth 
reached  by  fifty  per  cent  of  the  whites. 

If  the  foregoing  facts  be  kept  in  mind,  estimates  which 
might  otherwise  appear  unreasonably  small,  will  be  seen  to  be 
more  in  accord  with  what  one  would  expect. 

In  this  study  I  have  had  four  ends  in  view:  first,  to 
give  a  picture  of  the  life  and  customs  of  the  people  in 
1880;  second,  to  give  a  picture  of  the  life  and  customs  of 
the  people  at  the  present  time,  together  with  some  of  the 
most  prominent  economic  and  social  aspects  of  the  inter- 
vening period ;  third,  to  set  forth  the  main  causes  of  the  re- 
markable economic  and  social  changes  that  have  taken  place 
within  the  last  three  and  a  half  decades ;  fourth,  to  point  out 


9] 


PREFACE 


the  principal  factors  which  so  long  delayed  Chowan's  awak- 
ening, and  which  continue  not  only  to  retard  but  even  to 
prevent  the  full  realization  of  its  enormous  possibilities. 
Features  seeming  to  be  particularly  characteristic  of  the 
section  have  been  especially  stressed. 

Every  locality  has  certain  words  and  expressions  that 
are  distinctly  its  own,  and  uses  certain  common  words  and 
expressions  in  a  peculiar  sense.  It  has  been  my  constant 
effort  to  make  the  present  product  appear  indigenous  to 
the  locality  treated — to  make  it  such  that  a  "  native  "  would 
at  once  recognize  the  author  to  be  one  of  his  own  kind. 
Localisms,  as  well  as  colloquialisms,  wherever  they  would 
fit  in,  have  been  given  preference  over  the  more  formal 
language,  for  I  see  no  reason  why  it  is  not  just  as  important 
to  preserve  records  of  language  customs  as  it  is  to  preserve 
records  of  social,  economic,  or  any  other  custom.  An  ex- 
planatory note  has  been  subjoined  wherever  it  was  thought 
the  meaning  of  any  term  might  not  be  clear  to  an  "  outsider." 

Several  of  my  Chowan  friends  have  taken  considerable 
interest  in  my  effort — sufficient  interest  to  read  over  the 
monograph  while  still  in  manuscript  form,  and  give  me  their 
valued  criticisms  before  it  was  too  late  to  take  advantage 
of  them.  Much  of  whatever  value  the  work  may  possess 
is  due  to  their  timely  suggestions.  Some  of  these  good 
friends,  although  agreeing  that  the  picture  here  sketched  is 
fully  in  accord  with  fact,  nevertheless  have  felt  that  I  was 
doing  the  county  an  injustice  to  portray  actual  conditions 
without  making  a  comparison  with  conditions  in  other  sec- 
tions of  our  country.  Each  time  this  criticism  has  been 
offered  I  have  replied  that  while  I  knew  from  actual  ex- 
perience that  Chowan  was  neither  much  worse  nor  much 
better  than  numerous  other  counties  in  this  and  other  south- 
em  states,  nevertheless,  I  was  unable  for  lack  of  both  time 
and  space  to  present  a  sufficient  array  of  facts  to  justify  a 


10  PREFACE  [lO 

comparison.  I  have  attempted  to  write  of  Chowan  only. 
Should  the  reader's  un familiarity  with  conditions  in  the 
South  cause  him  to  think  this  county  any  worse  than 
hundreds  of  others,  he  might  profitably  spend  some  little 

time  in  getting  better  acquainted  with  the  great  country  ia 
which  he  lives. 

In  the  preparation  of  this  study  I  have  received  aid  from 
many  and  varied  sources,  and  any  merit  the  work  may 
possess,  is,  in  large  part,  due  to  others.  Those  who  have 
contributed  are  so  numerous — too  numerous  to  mention 
here  individually — that  to  the  great  majority  of  them  I 
can  only  express  my  thanks  in  blanket  form.  There 
are  some,  however,  who  have  given  so  much  of  their  valu- 
able time — in  furnishing  information,  in  giving  timely  sug- 
gestions and  criticisms,  and  in  helping  prepare  the  manu- 
script— that  their  services  deserve  a  personal  recogni- 
tion, and  this  I  most  heartily  accord.  In  this  category  are 
the  following:  Mr.  Frank  Wood,  Mr.  W.  J.  Berryman, 
Mr.  J.  O.  Alderman,  Dr.  Richard  Billiard  (all  of  Edenton, 
N.  C),  Mr.  Walter  M.  Hollowell  (Belvidere,  N.  C),  Miss 
Edith  Lawrenson  (Camden,  N.  J.),  and  Prof.  R.  E.  Chad- 
dock,  of  Columbia.  While  I  owe  much  to  all  of  these  I  owe 
still  more  to  Mr.  Noah  M.  Hollowell  (Brevard,  N.  C).  It 
is  to  Prof.  Henry  R.  Seager,  however,  to  whom  my  indebt- 
edness is  greatest.  He  has  not  only  read  the  manuscript  at 
least  twice  and  suggested  valuable  revisions  but  has  also 
performed  the  laborious  task  of  proof-reading  it.  To  all 
who  have  assisted  in  any  way,  I  am  most  grateful. 


CONTENTS 

PART  I 
Elements  of  Economic  and  Social  Life 

PAGB 

CHAPTER  I 
Physiography '7 

CHAPTER  II 
Population 22 

PART  II 

Development  of  Economic  Life 

chapter  iii 

Agriculture  in  the  Eighties 4' 

CHAPTER  IV 
The  Chief  Farm  Products  in  the  Eighties 63 

CHAPTER  V 
Agriculture,  Fruit  Culture,  Animal  Husbandry,  and  PouUry  Raising  in  19 15     80 

CHAPTER  VI 
Fishing  in  the  Eighties 81 

CHAPTER  VII 
Fishing  in  1915 Jo' 

CHAPTER  VIII 
Manufacturing  in  the  Eighties 107 

CHAPTER  IX 
Manufacturing  in  1915 115 

CHAPTER  X 
Lumbering 121 

II]  II 


12  CONTENTS  [I2 

rA6B 

CHAPTER  XI 
Communication,  Transportation,  and  Commerce  in  1880 127 

CHAPTER  Xn 
Communication,  Transportation,  and  Commerce  in  19 15 139 

CHAPTER  XIII 
Labor  and  Wages 144 

PART  III 

Development  of  Social  Life 

chapter  xiv 

Formal  Education  in  the  Eighties 157 

CHAPTER  XV 
Formal  Education  in  1915 167 

CHAPTER  XVI 
Social  Customs 179 

CHAPTER  XVII 
The  Church  in  the  Eighties .    195 

CHAPTER  XVIII 
The  Church  in  1915 2c6 

CHAPTER  XIX 
Sanitation  and  Hygiene 213 

CHAPTER  XX 
Necessaries,  Comforts,  and  Luxuries  in  the  Eighties 219 

CHAPTER  XXI 
Necessaries,  Comforts,  and  Luxuries  ini9i5 229 

PART  IV 
Conclusions 
chapter  xxii 

Progressive  and  Retrogressive  Factors  Affecting  the  Economic  and  Social 

Development 237 


13]  CONTENTS  13 

APPENDIX 

TABLB  FAGB 

1.  Climatological    Data,    Chowan   County,   N.  C,    Edenton    Station: 

1896-1913 261 

2.  Climatological    Data,    Chowan   County,    N.   C,    Edenton    Station: 

1896-1913 — continued 262 

3.  Computations  and  Interpretations  from  Tables  i  and  2 263 

4.  Color  and  Growth  of  Population  of  Chowan  County,  N.  C. :     1790- 

1910 264 

5.  Color  and  Nativity  of  Population  of  Chowan,  N.  C,  with  Edenton    ^ 

given  separately :     1850-1910 265 

U.  S.  Census   Definitions  of   « Farm  Lands,"   « Farm,"  "Farmer," 
"Improved  Land,"  and  "Unimproved  Land." 266 

6.  Land  Area,  Farms,  and  Farm    Property,    Chowan   County,  N.  C: 

1880-1910 269 

7.  Domestic  Animals,  Poultry,  and  Bees,  on  Farms,  Chowan  County, 

N.  C:  1880-1910 270 

8.  Acreage,  Total   Production,  and  Production  per  Acre  of  Principal 

Crops,  Chowan  County,  N.  C. :     1879,  1889,  1899,  and  1909.    •    •    271 

9.  Live  Stock  Products  and  Domestic  Animals  Sold  or  Slaughtered  on 

Farms,  Chowan  County,  N.  C:     1879,  1889,  1899,  and  1909.  .    .    272 

10.  Farms  Classified  by  Size,  Average  Number  of  Acres  per  Farm  in 

Each  Class,  and  the  Average  Number  of  Improved  Acres  per  Farm 

in  Each  Class,  Chowan  Country,  N.  C:     1880-19 10 273 

11.  Work  Animals  on  Farms,  Acres  of  Improved  Land  per  Work  Animal 

and  per  Standard  Work  Animal :     1880-1910 274 

12.  Select  Farm  Expenses  and  Receipts,  Chowan  County,  N.  C. :    1880- 

1910 275 

13.  Commercial  Fishing  Tackle  of  Chowan  County,  N.  C.     Its  Estimated 

Market  Value,  and  the  Labor  Force  Operating  It:     1880  and  1914    276 

14.  Estimated  Catch  of  Fish  in  Chowan  Country,  N.  C,  and  Its  Beach 

Value:     1880  and  1914 279 

15.  Horse-power  and  Steam-power  Seine  Fisheries  in  Chowan  County, 

N.  C,  in  1880,  and  the  Number  of  Yards  of  Seine  Fished  at  Each    281 

16.  Public  School  Census  of  Chowan  County,  N.  C. :    1880-84  and  1909- 

10 — 1913-14 282 

17.  Expenditures  for  Public  Schools,  Chowan  County,  N.  C. :     1880-3 

and  1909-10 — 1913-14 283 

18.  Value  of  Public  School  Property,  Chowan  County,  N.  C. :     1880-4 

and  1909-10 — 1913-14 284 


14  CONTENTS  [14 

TABX.B  PAGK 

19.  School  Census  Figures  of  Chowan  Country,  N.  C.  Reduced  to  Per- 

centages  :     188 1-4  and  1909-10 — 1913-14 285 

20.  Per  Capita  Expenditure  for  Teaching,  Per  Capita  Expenditure  for  All 

Purposes,  and  per  Capita  Value  of  School  Property,  for  Both  White 
and  Colored  :  Chowan  County,  N.  C.  :  1880-4  and  1909-10 — 
1913-H 286 

21.  Schedule  of  Regular  Salaries  for  Rural  School  Teachers  in  Chowan 

County,  N.  C,  in  19 14,  and  the  Number  of  Teachers  in  Each 
Grade  for  the  School  Year  1913-14 287 

22.  Illiteracy  in  Chowan  County,  N.  C. :     1900  and  1910 287 

23.  Church  Communicants  of  Chowan  County,  N.  C:     1890  and  1906  .    288 

24.  Church  Communicants  of  Chowan  County,  N.  C,  Compared  with  the 

Population  15  Years  and  Over:     1890  and  1906 289 


PART  I 

ELEMENTS  OF  ECONOMIC  AND 
SOCIAL  LIFE 


CHAPTER  I 

Physiography 

location  and  size 

Chowan  county  is  situated  in  the  northeastern  part  of 
North  Carolina,  in  the  angle  formed  by  the  junction  of  the 
Chowan  River  and  the  Albemarle  Sound,  which  bound  it  on 
the  west  and  south,  respectively.  On  its  eastern  border  is 
Perquimans  County,  and  on  its  northern.  Gates.  The  above- 
named  sound  and  river  furnish  the  county  with  some  40 
miles  of  water  frontage  accessible  to  fair-sized  river  craft. 
In  size,  Chowan  is  the  smallest  county  in  the  state,  com- 
prising 178  square  miles  or  133,920  acres. ^ 

TOPOGRAPHY 

"  In  general  the  surface  of  the  county  consists  of  level, 
undulating,  gently  rolling,  and  rolling  areas,  interspersed 
with  many  small  swamps  and  slight  depressions."  ^  The 
elevation  ranges  from  50  feet  to  nearly  sea  level,  with  more 
than  50  per  cent  of  the  area  below  20  feet,  and  a  considerable 
portion  below  10  feet.  Less  than  i  per  cent  of  the  area  has 
an  elevation  as  great  as  50  feet.* 

1  Both  the  Twelfth  and  Thirteenth  U,  S.  Censuses  state  that  the 
county  has  "  approximately  165  square  miles "  or  105,600  acres.  This 
approximation  was  arrived  at,  however,  before  the  recent  survey,  in 
1903.    Just  why  it  was  not  corrected  in  the  last  census  I  do  not  know. 

2  House  Documents,  59th  Congress,  2nd  Session,  1906-1907.  Field 
Operations,  Bureau  of  Soils,  vol.  Ixxv,  no.  352,  p.  223. 

•U.  S.  Geological  Survey.  Topographical  Maps:  Edenton  quadrangle, 
1903;  Hertford  quadrangle,  1905;  Beckford  quadrangle,  1906.  The 
estimate  as  to  the  per  cent  of  area  at  various  elevations  is  my  own 
based  upon  these  topographical  maps. 

17]  17 


l8  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [jg 

SOIL 

Northward  Chowan  county  consists  of  sandy,  upland 
piney  woods,  except  narrow  tracts  along  the  river  and  some 
of  its  tributaries,  where  cypress  swamps  of  considerable  extent 
are  found,  and  there  are  also  large  areas  of  oak  flats.  The 
southern  portion  of  the  county,  lying  near  the  sound  and  south 
of  the  Yeopim  river,  is  characterized  by  a  gray  clay-loam  soil 
and  mixed  oak  and  pine  forest  growth,  and  is  for  the  most 
part  very  productive.^ 

The  soils  of  Chowan  county  are  sedimentary  in  origin  and 
are  derived  from  the  Columbia  formation.  This  formation 
consists  of  sands,  sandy  loams  and  silt  loams  interspersed  with 
many  small  swamp  areas  of  peaty  and  mucky  material.  This 
section  of  North  Carolina  has  been  covered  several  times  by 
the  Atlantic  Ocean,  and  the  materials  constituting  the  Colum- 
bia formation  were  brought  down  from  the  Piedmont  section 
of  the  state  and  deposited  under  water.^ 

Exclusive  of  the  swamp  areas,  which  cover  more  than  13 
per  cent  of  the  county,  the  soil  is  pretty  evenly  divided  be- 
tween the  two  general  types  known  as  the  "  Norfolk  series  ** 
and  the  "  Portsmouth  series."  * 

The  Norfolk  series  occurs  in  areas  where  the  drainage  has 
been  fairly  well  established.  The  soils  are  light  in  color  and 
have  a  small  organic-matter  content.  The  soils  of  the  Ports- 
mouth series  occur  in  the  large  interstream  areas  where  the 
drainage  is  imperfect,  and  there  has  been  an  accumulation  of 
large  quantities  of  vegetable  matter,  giving  to  the  soils  a  brown 
or  black  color.* 

The  Norfolk  series,  as  a  rule,  needs  comparatively  little- 
artificial  drainage,  is  of  a  warm  nature,  and  easily  culti- 

1  U.  S.  Census  Reports  for  1880,  vol.  vi,  p.  563. 
House  Documents,  op.  cit.,  p.  228. 
*/&td.,  p.  229.  *  Ibid.,  p,  229, 


19]  PHYSIOGRAPHY  jg 

vated.  Much  of  it,  however,  leaches  very  badly.  The 
Portsmouth  series,  generally  speaking,  is  of  a  closer  texture, 
colder,  and  more  difficult  to  cultivate,  than  the  other  type. 
Moreover,  it  requires  considerable  artificial  drainage  and 
also  washes  and  gullies  rather  easily. 

CLIMATE 

In  the  matter  of  climate  the  people  of  Chowan  are 
especially  favored.  The  years  are  not  made  up  of  long, 
cold  winters  and  short,  hot  summers,  one  shifting  abruptly 
into  the  other ;  nor  are  the  years  made  up  of  hot,  dry  seasons 
followed  by  sultry,  rainy  ones.  Only  those  who  have  ex- 
perienced these  two  types  of  climate  can  fully  appreciate  the 
climate  of  Chowan.  Here  the  four  seasons  are  quite  pro- 
nounced, and  spring  and  fall — the  two  seasons  usually  con- 
sidered the  most  delightful  of  the  year  wherever  the  four 
seasons  are  found,  and  the  two  of  which  so  many  climates 
are  almost,  if  not  altogether,  bereft — ^are  the  longest  sea- 
sons. There  is  seldom  any  winter  until  after  Christmas, 
and  by  the  20th  of  March  usually  spring  has  set  in.  Sum- 
mer does  not  begin  till  about  the  20th  of  June,  and  by  the 
1st  of  September  the  autumn  days  are  already  proffering 
their  greetings.  You  of  Chowan  who  have  sojourned  in 
other  climes — you  can  never  forget  your  glorious  spring 
and  fall  days  which  make  one  feel  that  it  is  really  good 
to  be  alive. 

Another  beauty  of  the  climate  is  its  comparative  freedom 
both  from  monotony,  and  from  great  extremes  of  heat  and 
cold.^  People  who  have  lived  in  certain  sections  of  Cali- 
fornia, for  instance,  know  how  tiresome  even  good  weather 
can  become.  There,  where  mild,  clear  days  follow  each 
other  in  long  successions,  one  finds  himself  feeling  that  a 
hail-storm,  a  cyclone,  a  blizzard — almost  anything  to  break 

1  Cf.  table  I,  p.  261, 


20  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [20 

the  dull  monotony — would  be  a  welcome  change.  Bright 
sunshiny  days  are  very  desirable,  and  Chowan  has  them, 
but  they  come  interspersed  with  rainy  ones.  Coming  thus, 
they  are  appreciated  as  they  never  could  be  if  there  were 
sunshiny  days  only.  The  rain  is  just  as  welcome  as  the 
sunshine;  each  heightens  the  pleasing  effect  of  the  other. 
The  average  annual  number  of  clear  days  is  168,  while  98 
other  days  are  partially  clear,  leaving  only  loi  on  which  the 
sun  fails  to  shine  at  all.^ 

Those  from  Chowan  who  have  wintered  in  the  North 
and  Middle  West,  hugging  steam-pipes  and  coal-stoves  for 
days  at  a  time  while  the  mercury  was  out  beyond  zero  and 
still  traveling  away  from  that  center — they  can  appreciate 
the  short,  comparatively  mild  winters  of  Chowan.  Though 
there  are  never  any  great  extremes  of  temperature  here, 
the  range  from  0°  to  101°  ^  is  quite  sufficient  for  variety. 
Even  these  extremes  come  seldom  and  are  of  short  duration. 
In  only  two  of  the  past  eighteen  summers  has  the  temper- 
ature exceeded  98°,^  while  the  average  of  the  highest  single 
temperatures  reached  each  year  was  only  96.6°.*  There 
seldom  comes  a  night  when  one  does  not  need  some  cover,  if 
sleeping  out  in  the  open  or  in  a  well-ventilated  room. 

The  records  for  the  low  end  of  the  thermometer  show 
that  only  once  from  1896  to  19 13  did  the  mercury  touch 
the  zero  point,  and  for  sixteen  of  the  eighteen  years  it  never 
went  below  11°,  while  the  average  of  the  lowest  single  tem- 
peratures reached  each  year  is  but  13.4°.®  The  days  on 
which  the  temperature  in  the  sunshine  fails  to  rise  high 
enough  for  the  ground  to  start  thawing  are  considered  very 
cold,  and  seldom  occur.  Generally  there  are  from  one  to 
three  snows  a  winter,  but  the  fall  is  usually  light,®  and  rarely 

^  Cf.  tables  2  and  3,  pp.  262-3.  ^  Cf.  table  i,  p.  261. 

*Ibid.  *  C/.  table  3,  p.  263. 

^Ibid.  «  C/.  table  I,  p.  261. 


21  ]  PHYSIOGRAPHY  21 

is  the  ground  covered  for  more  than  two  or  three  days  at 
a  time.  The  kilHng  frosts  cease  early  in  the  spring  and  hold 
off  till  well  along  in  the  fall/  thus  giving  a  growing  season 
of  sufficient  length  to  produce  two  crops  annually  on  the 
same  piece  of  ground,  with  the  exception  of  cotton,  which 
crop  requires  the  full  season  in  which  to  mature. 

PRECIPITATION 

The  distribution  of  the  average  annual  precipitation  of 
49.39  inches,  with  a  mean  variation  of  only  5.49,^  while  not 
uniform  throughout  the  year,  nor  even  during  the  growing 
season,  can  hardly  be  called  bad,  when  the  average  highest 
monthly  precipitation  is  only  seven  and  three-quarter  inches, 
and  the  average  lowest,  more  than  i  inch.*  Frequently 
there  are  days  at  a  time  with  no  rain  fall,  but  as  far  back 
as  the  records  go  not  a  single  month  has  passed  without 
some  precipitation.*  Such  is  the  precipitation  and  its  dis- 
tribution that  the  farmer  whose  land  is  well  drained  and  in 
good  tilth,  is  practically  certain  of  a  fair  crop,  even  in  the 
most  unfavorable  years. 

1  Cf.  tables  2  and  3,  pp.  262-3. 

2  Cf.  tables  i  and  3,  pp.  261  and  263. 

*  Cf.  table  I,  p.  261. 


CHAPTER  II 

Population 

time  of  the  first  settlements 

Since  the  psychology  as  well  as  the  environment  of  a 
people  has  much  to  do  with  its  activities,  and  since  certain 
traits  are  handed  down  little  changed  thru  many  gener- 
ations, some  knowledge  of  the  first  white  settlers  of  Chowan, 
and  of  the  later  additions,  would  seem  quite  apropos.  The 
first  permanent  white  settlements  made  in  North  Carolina 
were  in  the  territory  at  present  embraced  by  Chowan  and 
the  adjoining  county  of  Perquimans.^  It  is  not  known,  as 
in  the  case  of  the  Jamestown,  Plymouth,  and  some  other 
colonies,  just  exactly  when  the  beginnings  of  these  settle- 
ments were  made.  It  is  known,  however,  that  the  Virginia 
colony — the  outskirts  of  which  by  1640  were  not  over  sixty 
miles  from  the  Albemarle  Sound — was  quite  firmly  estab- 
lished from  1630  on;  that  the  Albemarle  locality  was  a  very 
desirable  one  as  regards  climate,  productivity,  and  acces- 
sibility for  the  smaller  vessels  ^  of  that  time ;  that  it  was 
comparatively  easy  of  approach  for  people  from  Virginia 
coming  either  by  the  sea  route  or  inland  (there  being  several 
water  courses  leading  from  this  section  up  into  Virginia,  or 
near  the  line) ;  and  that  the  Virginia  colony  was  constantly 

^Colonial  Records  of  North  Carolina,  30  volumes  (1886-1914, 
Raleigh),  vol.  i,  pp.  ix-x. 

2  In  the  early  colonial  period  Roanoke  inlet  had,  at  times,  as  much  as 
fifteen  feet  of  water,  tho  the  depth  varied  from  month  to  month 
and  from  year  to  year,  eight-foot  draft  vessels  not  infrequently  striking 
in  passing  thru.    Cf.  Colonial  Records,  vol.  i,  pp.  99-100. 

22  [22 


23]  POPULATION  23 

throwing  out  prospectors  seeking  to  better  their  conditions. 
In  view  of  these  facts  it  is  quite  probable  that  the  Albe- 
marle region  was  receiving  settlers  from  this  source  at  least 
as  early  as  1650. 

There  are  also  preserved  to  us  documents  which  indicate 
that  Europeans  were  settled  here  by  1650,  or  very  soon 
thereafter.  Item  no.  374  in  Book  A  ^  of  the  Perquimans 
County  Records  is  a  recorded  deed  made  to  George  Durant 
on  March  i,  1661,  by  the  King  of  the  Yeopim  Indians.  In 
this  deed  mention  is  made  of  another  tract  of  land  "  form- 
erly sold  to  Sam.  Pricklove."  In  1663  the  Lords  Proprie- 
tors commissioned  Berkley  "  to  constitute  and  appoint  Gov- 
ernors and  all  other  necessary  Officers  both  military  and 
civil,  and  to  make,  enact  and  ordayne  Lawes  by  and  with 
the  advise  and  consent  of  the  freemen  of  the  said  Province 
or  of  the  greater  part  of  them  there  delligates  ore  deputies.'' 
He  was  empowered  to  "  nominate,  constitute  and  ap^ 
poynt  such  persons  as  he  shall  conceive  fitting  to  be  and 
continew  Governor  of  all  that  parte  of  the  province  afore- 
said which  lyeth  on  the  north  east  side  or  starboard  side 
entering  the  river  Chowan  now  named  by  us  Albemarle 
river."  ^  By  1666  the  Albemarle  country  had  become 
of  such  importance  in  the  production  of  tobacco,  that  the 
Maryland  General  Assembly  in  passing  an  act  that  no  to- 
bacco be  cultivated  in  said  province  during  the  year  1666, 
made  it  conditional  on  the  following  clause :  "  Provided  that 
the  Honble  Sir  William  Berkley  and  the  Assembly  in  Vir- 
ginia, and  Wm.  Drummond  Esqre  Governor  of  Carolina 
and  the  Assembly  there  doe  make  the  like  Act  in  their  sev- 
eral &  Respective  Assemblies  .  .  ."  * 

1  This  book  is  still  in  the  office  of  the  Register  of  Deeds  in  the 
Perquimans  county  courthouse.  I  had  the  keen  pleasure  of  consulting 
it  in  the  summer  of  1914.  A  copy  of  the  deed  is  also  in  the  Colonial 
Records,  op.  cit.,  vol.  i,  p.  19. 

'  Cf.  Colonial  Records,  op.  cit.,  vol.  i,  p.  49-  '  ibid.,  pp.  139-40. 


24  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [24 

ORIGIN  OF  THE  FIRST  WHITE  SETTLERS 

According  to  the  historians  the  first  white  settlers  of 
Chowan  were  people — many  of  whom  had  some  means  ^ — 
from  other  English-American  colonies,  especially  Virginia. 
Lawson,  the  earliest  historian  of  this  region  says,  '*A  second 
Settlement  ^  of  this  Country  was  made  about  fifty  Years 
ago  [his  travels  in  North  Carolina  began  in  December 
1700],  in  that  part  we  now  call  Albemarle^County,  and 
chiefly  in  Chowan  Precinct,  by  several  substantial  Planters, 
from  Virginia  and  other  Plantations."  ^    Bancroft  says: 

The  first  settlements  on  Albemarle  Sound  were  a  result  of 
spontaneous  overflowings  from  Virginia,  and  other  Planta- 
tions. .  .  .  Albemarle  had,  in  1665,  been  increased  by  fresh 
emigrants  from  New  England  and,  two  years  later,  by  a  colony 
of  ship  builders  from  the  Bermudas.  .  .  .  The  suppression  of 
a  fierce  insurrection  [Bacon's  Rebellion,  1676-77]  in  Virginia 
had  been  followed  by  vindictive  punishment ;  and  "  runaways, 
rogues,  and  rebels  " — that  is  to  say,  fugitives  from  arbitrary 
tribunals,  non-conformists,  and  friends  to  liberty — "  fled  daily 
to  Carolina,  as  their  common  subterfuge  and  lurking  place." 
Did  letters  from  Virginia  demand  the  surrender  of  leaders  in 
the  rebellion,  Carolina  refused  to  betray  the  fugitives.* 

*  Samuel  A' Court  Ashe,  History  of  North  Carolina  (Greensboro, 
N.  C,  1908),  vol.  i,  p.  90. 

'White's  ill-fated  Roanoke  settlement  of  1587  he  has  previously 
mentioned. 

'John  Lawson,  Gent.  Surveyor- General  of  North  Carolina,  A  New 
Voyage  to  Carolina;  Containing  the  Exact  Description  and  Natural 
History  of  that  Country:  Together  with  the  Present  State  thereof. 
And  a  Journal  of  a  Thousand  Miles,  Traveled  thro'  several  Nations  of 
Indians.  Giving  a  particular  Account  of  their  Customs,  Manners,  &c. 
(London:  1709),  p.  ()2. 

*  George  Bancroft,  History  of  the  United  States  from  the  Discovery 
of  the  Continent  (D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  1885-6,  New  York),  vol.  i,  pp. 
410,  420,  424. 


25]  POPULATION  25 

CHARACTERISTICS  OF  THE  EARLY  SETTLERS 

Qualifications  of  Contemporary  Writers. — What  was  the 
nature,  character,  or  psychical  constitution  of  these  settlers? 
Some  light  has  already  been  shed  upon  this  question  by 
citations  in  the  previous  paragraph.  Bancroft  was,  of 
course,  writing  of  the  past,  but  happily  there  are  three  men — 
Lawson,  Byrd,  and  Brickell  (who  may  be  considered  con- 
temporaries of  the  first  settlers) — who  have  left  us  inter- 
esting first-hand  accounts  of  the  early  Carolinians.  Both 
Lawson,  one  time  surveyor  general,  and  Brickell,  a  physician, 
lived  and  traveled  in  the  state  for  years,  and  it  is  therefore 
reasonable  to  suppose  that  they  knew  pretty  well  the  people 
of  whom  they  wrote.  Byrd  was  one  of  the  commissioners 
from  Virginia  appointed  by  that  state  to  assist  in  running 
the  Virginia-North  Carolina  line,  which  line  was  run  in 
1728.  In  considering  Byrd's  account,  written  sometime  be- 
tween 1728  and  1737,  the  reader  should  ever  bear  in  mind 
that  the  most  of  the  Carolinians  with  whom  he  came  in 
contact  were  those  living  in  the  strip  of  territory  which 
Virginia  wanted  to  take  from  Carolina ;  that  he  was  a  loyal 
Virginian ;  that  for  various  reasons  many  Virginians  of  this 
period  had  an  intense  prejudice  against,  and  contempt  for, 
the  Carolinians.  The  extremely  biased  attitude  of  Byrd  is 
quite  patent  all  through  his  Dividing  Line. 

Reasons  for  Quoting  at  Length. — The  large  space  devoted 
to  excerpts  in  this  connection  is  justified  on  the  following 
grounds :  first,  they  will  aid  the  reader  in  forming  his  own 
estimate  of  the  people  of  Chowan  in  early  colonial  times; 
second,  the  present  white  residents  are  to  no  small  degree 
descendants  of  the  early  arrivals;  third,  the  extracts 
furnish  one  the  best  means  of  insight  into  the  char- 
acter of  both  the  new  settlers  and  their  new  environment 
that  can  be  had  from  contemporary  sources;  finally,  they 
foreshadow  many  of  the  tendencies  and  conditions  exist- 


26  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [26 

ing  here  today,  thus  helping  us  to  understand  the  present 
situation. 

The  amount  of  corroborative  testimony  of  the  three  chief 
historians  who  were  contemporaries  of  this  early  period  is 
rather  remarkable,  especially  when  we  consider  the  fact  that 
two  of  the  writers  were  inclined  to  picture  conditions  over- 
rosy,  and  the  other  one,  over-dark.    The  citations  follow : 

Observations  and  Opinions  of  Lawson. — As  the  Land  is  very 
fruitful,  so  are  the  Planters  kind  and  hospitable  to  all  that 
come  to  visit  them;  there  being  very  few  Housekeepers,  but 
what  live  very  nobly,  and  give  away  more  Provisions  to  Coast- 
ers and  Guests  who  come  to  see  them,  than  they  expend  upon 
their  own  Families. 

....  Some  of  the  Men  [in  Carolina]  are  very  laborious, 
and  make  great  improvements  in  their  Way ;  but  I  dare  hardly 
give  'em  that  Character  in  general.  The  easy  Way  of  living 
in  that  plentiful  Country,  makes  a  great  many  Planters  very 
negligent.  .  .  .  The  Women  are  the  most  industrious  Sex  in 
that  Place.  .  .  .  The  Women  are  very  fruitful;  most  Houses 
being  full  of  Little  Ones. 

....  As  for  the  Constitution  of  this  Government,  it  is  so 
mild  and  easy,  in  respect  to  the  Properties  and  Liberties  of  a 
Subject,  that  without  rehearsing  the  Particulars,  I  say  once 
for  all,  it  is  the  mildest  and  best  establish'd  Government  in  the 
World,  and  the  Place  where  any  Man  may  peaceably  enjoy 
his  own  without  being  invaded  by  another;  Rank  and  Supe- 
riority ever  give  place  to  Justice  and  Equity.  .  .  .  Besides,  it 
is  worthy  our  Notice,  that  this  Province  has  been  settled,  and 
continued  the  most  free  from  the  Insults  and  Barbarities  of 
the  Indians  of  any  Colony,  that  was  ever  yet  seated  in  Amer- 
ica; which  must  be  esteem'd  as  a  particular  Providence  of  God 
handed  down  from  Heaven,  to  these  People ;  especially,  when 
we  consider  how  irregularly  they  settled  North-Caro/ma,  and 
yet  how  undisturb'd  they  have  ever  remain'd,  free  from  any 
foreign  Danger  or  Loss,  even  to  this  very  Day.  And  what 
may  well  be  look'd  upon  for  as  great  a  Miracle,  this  is  a  Place 


27]  POPULA  TION  27 

where  no  Malefactors  are  found,  desearving  Death,  or  even  a 
Prison  for  Debtors;  there  being  no  more  than  two  Persons, 
that,  as  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  learn,  ever  suffer'd  as  Crim- 
inals, although  it  has  been  a  Settlement  near  sixty  Years ;  One 
of  whom  was  a  Turk  that  committed  Murder;  the  other,  an 
old  Woman,  for  Witchcraft.^ 

Observations  and  Opinions  of  Byrd.  —  We  perceived  the 
happy  Effect  of  Industry  in  this  Family  [Timothy  Ivy's],  in 
which  every  one  lookt  tidy  and  clean,  and  carri'd  in  their  coun- 
tenances the  cheerful  Marks  of  Plenty.  We  saw  no  Drones 
there  which  are  but  too  Common,  alas,  in  that  Part  of  the 
World.  Tho',  in  truth,  the  Distemper  of  Laziness  seizes  the 
Men  oftener  much  than  the  women.  These  last  Spin,  weave 
and  knit,  all  with  their  own  Hands,  while  their  Husbands,  de- 
pending on  the  Bounty  of  the  Climate,  are  Sloathful  in  every- 
thing but  getting  of  Children,  and  in  that  only  Instance  make 
themselves  useful  Members  of  an  Infant-Colony. 

....  Tis  natural  for  helpless  man  to  adore  his  Maker  in 
Some  Form  or  other,  and  were  there  any  exception  to  this  Rule, 
I  should  expect  it  to  be  among  the  Hottentots  of  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope  and  of  North  Carolina.  .  .  .  They  account  it 
among  their  greatest  advantages  that  they  are  not  Priest- 
ridden.  .  .  .  One  thing  may  be  said  for  the  Inhabitants  of  that 
Province,  that  they  are  not  troubled  with  any  Religious  Fumes, 
and  have  the  least  Superstition  of  any  People  living.  They 
do  not  know  Sunday  from  any  other  day,  any  more  than  Rob- 
inson Crusoe  did,  which  would  give  them  a  great  Advantage 
were  they  given  to  be  industrious.  But  they  keep  so  many 
Sabaths  every  week,  that  their  disregard  of  the  Seventh  Day 
has  no  manner  of  cruelty  in  it,  either  to  Servants  or  Cattle. 

....  Surely  there  is  no  place  in  the  World  where  the  In- 
habitants live  with,  less  Labour  than  in  N  Carolina.  It  ap- 
proaches nearer  to  the  Description  of  Lubberland  than  any 
other,  by  the  great  felicity  of  the  Climate,  the  easiness  of 
Raising  Provisions,  and  the  Sloth  fulness  of  the  People. 

1  Lawson,  op.  cit.,  pp.  63-4,  83-4,  166-7. 


28  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [28 

Indian  Corn  is  of  so  great  increase,  that  a  little  Pains  will 
Subsist  a  very  large  Family  with  Bread,  and  they  may 
have  meat  without  any  pains  at  all,  by  the  Help  of  the  Low 
Grounds,  and  the  great  Variety  of  Mast  that  grows  on  the 
High-land.  The  Men,  for  their  Parts,  just  like  the  Indians, 
impose  all  the  Work  upon  the  poor  Women.  They  make  their 
Wives  rise  out  of  their  Beds  early  in  the  Morning,  at  the  same 
time  they  lye  and  Snore,  till  the  Sun  has  run  one  third  of  his 
course,  and  disperst  all  the  unwholesome  Damps.  Then,  after 
Stretching  and  Yawning  for  half  an  Hour,  they  light  their 
Pipes,  and,  under  the  Protection  of  a  cloud  of  Smoak,  venture 
out  into  the  open  Air ;  Tho',  if  it  happens  to  be  never  so  little 
cold,  they  quickly  return  Shivering  into  the  Chimney  corner. 
When  the  weather  is  mild,  they  stand  leaning  with  both  their 
arms  upon  the  corn-field  fence,  and  gravely  consider  whether 
they  had  best  go  and  take  a  Small  Heat  at  the  Hough  [hoe] : 
but  generally  find  reasons  to  put  it  oft*  till  another  time. 

Thus  they  loiter  away  their  Lives,  like  Solomon's  Sluggard 
with  their  arms  across,  and  at  the  Winding  up  of  the  Year 
Scarcely  have  Bread  to  Eat. 

To  speak  the  Truth,  tis  a  thorough  Aversion  to  Labor  that 
makes  People  file  off  to  N  Carolina,  where  Plenty  and  a  Warm 
Sun  confirm  them  in  their  Disposition  to  Laziness  for  their 
whole  Lives. 

....  Some  Borderers,  too,  had  a  great  Mind  to  know  where 
the  Line  wou'd  come  out,  being  for  the  most  part  Apprehen- 
sive lest  their  Lands  Should  be  taken  into  Virginia.  In  that 
case  they  must  have  submitted  to  some  Sort  of  Order  and 
Government;  whereas,  in  N  Carolina,  every  One  does  what 
seems  best  in  his  own  Eyes.  .  .  .  Wherever  we  passed  we 
<:onstantly  found  the  Borderers  laid  it  to  Heart  if  their  Land 
was  taken  into  Virginia:  They  chose  much  rather  to  belong 
to  Carolina,  where  they  pay  no  Tribute,  either  to  God  or  to 
Ceasar. 

Another  reason  was,  that  the  Government  there  is  so  Loose, 
and  the  Laws  so  feably  executed,  that,  like  those  in  the  Neigh- 


29]  POPULATION  29 

bourhood  of  Sydon  formerly,  every  one  does  just  what  seems 
good  in  his  own  Eyes.^ 

Testimony  of  Brickell. — The  Planters  by  the  richness  of  the 
Soil,  live  after  the  most  easie  and  pleasant  Manner  of  any 
People  I  have  ever  met  with ;  for  you  shall  seldom  hear  them 
Repine  at  any  Misfortune  in  Life,  except  the  loss  of  Friends, 
there  being  plenty  of  all  Necessaries  convenient  for  Life: 
Poverty  being  an  entire  Stranger  here,  and  the  Planters  the 
most  hospitable  People  that  are  to  be  met  with,  not  only  to 
Strangers  but  likewise  to  those  who  by  any  Misfortune  have 
lost  the  use  of  their  Limbs  or  are  incapable  to  Work,  and  have 
no  visible  way  to  support  themselves.  .  .  . 

It  is  admirable  to  observe  the  Prosperity  of  several  Adven- 
tures to  Carolina,  in  the  memory  of  Man;  and  how  many 
from  the  most  despicable  beginning  in  a  short  time,  by  Gods 
blessing  and  their  own  industry,  are  arrived  to  as  splendid 
Fortunes,  as  any  have  in  other  British  Provinces  on  this  Con- 
tinent. 

....  There  is  Liberty  of  Conscience  allowed  in  the  whole 
Province ;  however,  the  Planters  live  in  the  greatest  Harmony 
imaginable,  no  Disputes  or  Controversies  are  ever  observed 
to  arrise  among  them  about  their  Religious  Principles.  They 
always  treat  each  other  with  Friendship  and  Hospitality,  and 
never  dispute  over  their  Liquor  .  .  .  By  this  Unity  of  Affec- 
tion, the  Prosperity  of  the  Province  has  increased  from  its 
first  rise,  to  this  Day.  But  though  they  are  thus  remarkable 
for  their  Friendship,  Harmony  and  Hospitality,  yet  in  regard 
to  Morals,  they  have  their  share  of  the  Corruptions  of  the 
Age,  for  as  they  live  in  the  greatest  Ease  and  Plenty,  Luxury 
of  Consequence  predominates,  which  is  never  without  its  at- 
tendant Vices.^ 

1  The  Writings  of  "  Colonel  William  Byrd  of  Westover  in  Virginia 
Esq."  (published  in  1737),  edited  by  John  Spencer  Bassett  (New  York, 
1901),  pp.  56,  58,  61,  75-6,  63,  87. 

^John  Brickell,  M.  D,,  The  Natural  History  of  North  Carolina  with 
an  Account  of  the  Trade,  Manners,  and  Customs  of  the  Christian  and 
Indian  Inhabitants  (Dublin,  1737),  PP-  30,  46,  S^-?- 


30  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [30 

Views  of  Bancroft. — Almost  all  the  American  colonies  were 
chiefly  planted  by  those  to  whom  the  uniformities  of  Euro- 
pean life  were  intolerable;  North  Carolina  was  planted  by 
men  to  whom  the  restraints  of  other  colonies  were  too  severe. 
....  The  settlers  were  gentle  in  their  tempers,  enemies  to 
violence.  Not  all  their  successive  revolutions  had  kindled  in 
them  vindictive  passions ;  freedom  was  enjoyed  without  anxi- 
ety as  without  guarantees;  and  the  spirit  of  humanity  main- 
tained its  influence  in  the  paradise  of  Quakers.^ 

Summary  and  Conclusions.  —  While  some  statements  in 
the  above  citations  may  be  somewhat  over-eulogistic  in  their 
tone,  the  fact  remains  that  Carolina  was  remarkable  for  the 
amount  of  harmony  and  lack  of  violence  within  its  borders 
during  the  early  pioneer  days.  In  order  to  realize  some- 
thing of  the  great  value  to  the  colony  of  being  "  not  troubled 
w^th  any  Religious  Fumes  and  Superstitions,"  we  have  but 
to  recall  some  of  the  conditions  in  New  England  where 
there  was  little  religious  toleration,*  and  where  numerous 
men  and  women  of  sterling  worth  were  jailed,  tortured, 
and  some  even  hanged,  all  because  of  superstition — belief 
in  witchcraft.'  There  were  some  political  and  religious 
disturbances  but  they  were  mostly  injected  into  the  colony 
from  the  outside.*  When  left  to  themselves  the  colonists 
settled  their  own  differences,  abated  their  own  nuisances 
and  righted  their  own  wTongs,  with  much  justice  and  mag- 

1  Bancroft,  op.  cit.,  vol.  i,  p.  428.  ^  Ibid.,  p.  311  et  seq. 

*Ihid.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  51-66. 

♦  Cf.  Col.  Records,  op.  cit.,  vol.  i,  pp.  709-10,  for  the  disturb- 
ance caused  by  stopping  the  practice  of  allowing  one  to  "affirm,"  or 
"declare."  The  Quakers,  as  is  well-known,  refused  to  "swear,"  or 
"take  an  oath."  Under  Queen  Anne,  an  act  was  passed  in  England 
(effective  also  in  the  colonies)  to  the  effect  that  no  one  should  hold 
office  prior  to  taking  certain  oaths.  The  Quakers  in  Albemarle  refusing 
to  take  these  oaths,  were  dismissed  from  the  assembly  and  courts  of 
justice.    Of  course  this  made  trouble. 


31  ]  POPULATION  31 

nanimity.  Although  they  contended  most  vigorously  for 
what  they  considered  their  rights  and  were  never  cowed  by 
unjust  authority,  they  nevertheless  manifested  surprisingly 
little  malice,  or  revenge.  They  seemed  satisfied  if  the  brew- 
ers of  trouble  were  either  stilled  or  removed.  All  they 
wanted  was  to  be  left  alone  to  work  out  their  own  destiny. 
Along  with  this  spirit  of  freedom,  justice,  and  fair  play, 
there  also  dwelt  a  spirit  of  equality  and  democracy  foreign 
to  anything  known  in  the  neighboring  colony  of  Virginia 
whence  many  of  the  early  Carolinians  came.^ 

REASONS  FOR  EARLY  IMMIGRATION  TO  CHOWAN 

Role  of  Religion. — What  prompted  the  first  settlers  to  im- 
migrate to  Carolina?  Some  doubtless  came  from  a  desire 
to  escape  the  discomfiture  caused  them  by  religious  enthus- 
iasm and  intolerance  elsewhere,  but  it  can  hardly  be  said  that 
these  pioneer  settlers  came  because  they  wanted  to  worship 
God  in  some  special  manner  not  allowed  where  they  had 
previously  lived. ^  No  one  was  molested  in  Carolina  for 
worshipping  as  he  chose  and  yet  there  was  not  a  church- 
house  in  the  province  till  1702,  or  1703,  some  forty  or  fifty 
years  after  the  first  settlements,  and  then  only  after  the 
assembly  of  the  province  had  ordered  one  built  at  the  pub- 
lic's expense.^  In  1709,  Gordon,  a  man  sent  over  by  some 
Church-of -England  society,  writing  home  to  the  secretary 
of  the  society,  says,  '* Chowan  is  the  westernmost,  the  largest 
and  thinnest  seated :  they  built  a  church  some  years  ago,  but 
it  is  small,  very  sorrily  put  together,  and  is  ill  looked  after 
...."*  Another  minister  of  the  Church  of  England  writes 
back  to  the  society  in  May  17 17,  as  follows: 

^Colonial  Records  of  N.  C,  op.  cit.,  vol.  i,  passim',  Ashe,  op.  city 
vol.  i,  passim ;  Bancroft,  op.  cit.,  vol  i,  ch.  vii,  and  vol.  ii,  ch.  L 

2  Cf.  supra,  pp.  27-8. 

3  Col.  Records,  op.  cit.,  vol.  i,  pp.  543-45,  558-6o,  709. 
*Ibid.,  p.  711. 


32  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [32 

I  went  this  winter  7  times  to  the  Church  in  the  neighborhood 
(i.  e.  that  is  4  miles  distance)  and  met  not  a  congregation;  so 
indifferent  are  our  Gentry  in  their  Religion  they  had  rather 
never  come  to  church  than  be  obliged  to  pay  me  anything,  they 
cannot  endure  the  thoughts  of  it :  they  wonder  I  do  not  leave 
the  country  and  their  debt  would  be  paid;  that  is  the  way 
they  have  treated  all  of  my  Function  before  me  and  would 
have  the  world  believe  they  are  no  changelings/ 

Writing  back  to  the  society  again,  in  June  of  the  same  year, 
he  says  of  the  church  wardens  and  vestrymen  of  Chowan, 
"'  It  is  all  one  to  them  whether  they  have  a  minister  &  church 
to  go  or  not."  ^ 

If  any  have  thought  the  first  settlers  were  Quakers  flying 
from  religious  persecution,  it  may  probably  come  as  a  dis- 
appointment to  them  to  learn  that  the  known  facts  fail  to 
support  such  an  opinion.^  Edmundson  visiting  Carolina  in 
1672  found  only  one  Quaker  family.  The  journals  of  both 
Edmundson  and  Fox  indicate  that  the  first  Quakers  in  Albe- 
marle were  those  who  embraced  the  faith  after  removing 
hither.*  This  fact  is  also  attested  to  in  a  letter  by  Governor 
Walker  of  Virginia  to  the  Bishop  of  London  ^  in  1703,  and 
again  by  one  of  Gordon's  letters  (May  1709)  to  the  "  secre- 
tary "  ®  (presumably  of  the  foreign  mission  board). 

Economic  and  Political  Motives.  —  No,  the  first  immi- 
grants to  Albemarle  came  not  as  persecuted  saints  seeking 
a  place  to  worship  God  according  to  their  own  views,  but 
as  men  and  women  seeking  a  bigger  economic  and  political 
freedom  than  they  were  then  enjoying.  Some  were  driven 
out  of  Virginia  immediately  after  Bacon's  Rebellion  in 
1676-77  (twenty  years  or  more  after  the  first  settlers  came 

1  Col.  Recs.,  vol.  ii,  p.  279.  *  Ibid.,  vol.  ii,  p.  288. 

*Ibid.,  vol.  i,  pp.  xviii-xxi.  *  Ibid.,  pp.  215-18,  227. 

*Ibid.,  pp.  571-2.  ^  Ibid.,  pp.  7^0-11. 


33]  POPULATION  33 

to  Carolina)  because  of  Berkley's  revengeful  activity/  but 
undoubtedly  most  of  them  came  for  the  purpose  of  making 
a  better  and  easier  living.^  The  "  Lords  Comgmrs  for 
Trade"  inquired  of  the  Virginia  Council  in  1708  the  cause 
of  the  "  removal  of  the  Inhabitants  of  this  Colony  into  our 
neighboring  Plantations  &  the  way  to  prevent  the  same." 
The  Council  replied,  in  substance,  as  follows :  first,  the  want 
in  Virginia  of  desirable  land  convenient  to  settle  which  is 
still  unpatented  and  open  to  settlers ;  second,  the  much  easier 
terms  of  acquiring  land  in  Carolina;  third,  the  difficulty  of 
collecting  debts  owed  in  Virginia  by  those  who  remove  to 
Carolina/  Saunders  in  the  prefatory  notes  of  the  first 
volume  of  the  Colonial  Records  says : 

It  is  perhaps  a  very  flattering  unction  that  we  lay  to  our  souls 
in  supposing  our  State  was  settled  by  men  seeking  religious 
freedom,  but  unhappily  there  seems  to  be  no  solid  foundation 
for  the  belief.  So  far  as  we  can  see,  the  moving  causes  of 
immigration  to  Albemarle  were  its  delightful  climate,  magnifi- 
cent bottom  lands  and  bountiful  products.  Immigration,  in 
early  days,  divested  of  its  glamour  and  brought  down  to  solid 
fact,  is  the  history  of  a  continuous  search  for  "  bottom  land."  * 

GROWTH  AND  LOCATION  OF  THE  POPULATION 

Growth  During  iypo-i8/o.  —  The  First  U.  S,  Census 
(1790)  accredits  the  county  with  a  population  of  5,011. 
The  increase  for  the  next  20  years  was  very  slight,  on  an 
average  less  than  3  per  cent  for  each  decade.  The  next 
decade  (1810-20)  showed  an  increase  of  22  per  cent.  From 
1820  to  1870,  a  period  of  50  years,  the  population  was 
stationary.     In  fact,  it  was  actually  a  small  fraction  of  i 

*  Bancroft,  op.  cit.,  vol.  i,  pp.  467-9. 
'Ashe,  op.  cit.,  p.  59. 
®  Col.  Records,  op.  cit,  pp.  690-1. 
*Ibid.,  p.  xxi. 


34  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [34 

per  cent  less  in  1870  than  it  was  in  1820.^  Since  the  county 
was  visited  by  no  serious  epidemic,  war,  famine,  or  other 
decimating  factor  in  either  of  these  periods,  and  since  there 
is  no  reason  for  thinking  that  the  f ruitfulness  of  the  people, 
commented  on  by  the  early  historians,^  had  all  of  a  sudden 
greatly  decreased,  it  is  highly  probable  that  not  a  few  were 
emigrating.  As  this  was  a  period  when  vast  numbers  all 
along  the  Atlantic  coast  were  flowing  over  the  mountains 
into  the  fertile  valleys  of  the  Mississippi  and  its  tributaries, 
it  was  only  natural  that  many  of  the  more  restless  and 
ambitious  spirits  of  Chowan  should  hear  and  answer  the 
alluring  call  of  the  West. 

Growth  During  i8yo-ipio. — During  the  past  forty  years 
there  has  been  a  steady  increase  in  the  poulation,  but  the 
increase,  both  absolutely  and  relatively,  has  lessened  with 
each  successive  decade.  The  increase  over  the  previous  de- 
cennial count  dropped  from  22.5  per  cent  in  1880^  to  10.2 
per  cent  in  19 10.* 

Rural  and  Urban. — ^^Chowan  has  one  town,  and  only  one 
— Edenton.  According  to  the  1850  census  (the  first  to 
enumerate  the  town  and  rural  inhabitants  separately)  it 
contained  1607  people — nearly  one-fourth  of  the  county's 
population.  Each  of  the  three  censuses  following  credited 
it  with  a  population  ranging  from  6.4  per  cent  to  22.6  per 
cent  smaller  than  that  for  1850;  the  1850  figures  were  not 
again  attained  till  1890.  The  census  for  that  year  showed 
a  59.5  per  cent  increase  during  the  decade  immediately  pre- 

1  Cf.  table  4,  p.  264. 

2  Cf.,  supra,  pp.  ^-7,  also  Brickell,  op.  cit.,  p.  31. 

®This  is  the  largest  percentage  (it  is  also  the  largest  absolute)  in- 
crease shown  by  any  decade  since  the  inauguration  of  the  federal  de- 
cennial census. 

*  Cf.  table  4,  p.  264,  for  the  number  at  various  census  years. 


35]  POPULATION  35 

ceding.^  Since  the  beginning  of  separate  enumeration  the 
proportion  of  the  population  of  Edenton  to  that  of  the  whole 
county  has  fluctuated  from  slightly  less  than  two  to  ten,  to 
practically  three  to  ten.  In  other  words,  during  this  period 
Edenton  has  contained,  in  round  numbers  from  twenty  to 
thirty  per  cent  of  the  county's  entire  population.^ 

Recent  Foreign  Immigration. — In  1769  there  were  in  and 
near  Edenton  men  of  prominence — some  of  national  reputa- 
tion— from  several  of  the  other  colonies,  and  from  Ireland, 
France,  Scotland,  and  England.^  During  the  past  hundred 
years,  however,  there  has  been  very  little  immigration  of 
any  sort  into  Chowan.  Few,  even,  have  moved  in  from  the 
adjoining  counties.  In  1870  there  were  only  75  native 
Americans  in  the  county  who  had  been  born  outside  of  the 
state,  and  74  of  these  were  from  either  Virginia  or  West 
Virginia.  In  1880  there  were  in  the  county  no  people 
from  Virginia,  and  only  54  from  all  other  states  and  for- 
eign countries.  It  is  thus  seen  that  at  the  beginning  of  the 
period  which  it  is  here  proposed  to  cover,  the  most  of  the 
very  small  immigration  was  coming  from  the  same  source 
whence  it  came  in  the  early  days — from  Virginia.* 

The  first  separate  enumeration  by  counties  of  the  foreign 
bom  was  in  i860.  That  year  there  were  12  in  the  county 
from  foreign  lands.  Two  decades  later  there  were  only  6 
of  this  class,  and  the  highest  recorded  for  any  census  year 
is  23  for  1890.  The  average  for  the  six  decennial  years 
for  which  these  data  were  gathered  is  only  16.     In  1870, 

*  It  was  during  this  decade  that  the  first  railroad  reached  Edenton  and 
that  the  first  big  saw-mill  was  erected  there.  Much  other  construction 
work  was  also  gotten  under  way  during  this  period. 

2  Cf.  table  S,  P-  265. 

'C/.  Griffith  J.  McRee,  Life  and  Correspondence  of  James  Iredell 
(New  York,  1857),  pp.  30-36,  passim. 

*  Cf.  table  s,  p.  265. 


36  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [36 

for  the  first  time,  account  was  taken  of  the  native  born  of 
foreign  and  of  mixed  parentage.  There  were  just  24,  the 
highest  number  recorded  for  any  decennial  year.  In  the 
1880  census,  this  item  was  left  out.  The  average  was  under 
17  for  the  three  censuses  following.^ 

Origin,  Color  and  Nativity  of  Present  Inhabitants. — 
From  the  foregoing  it  is  quite  clear  that  the  growth  of 
Chowan's  population  for  at  least  the  past  one  hundred 
years  has  been  overwhelmingly  by  natural  increase  from  the 
native  stock.  But  this  is  only  what  one  might  expect.  Em- 
bracing part  of  the  oldest  settled  portion  of  the  state,  being 
naturally  one  of  the  most  accessible  sections  and  one  of 
those  most  favored  by  nature  in  general,  Chowan,  as  a 
matter  of  course,  was  one  of  the  first  counties  to  fill  up. 
Those  who  have  come  in  during  the  past  three-quarters  of 
a  century  have  come  in  for  special  purposes.  The  labor 
of  the  one  cotton-mill  in  the  county  is  largely  from  other 
parts  of  the  state.  Those  coming  from  Virginia  in  the 
seventies  and  eighties  were  mostly  colored  laborers  who 
came  to  work  at  the  saw-mills,  in  the  lumber  woods,  and  on 
the  railroads.  The  whites  from  other  states  have  been  in- 
terested primarily  in  lumbering,  saw-milling,  railroading  and 
manufacturing,  while  the  few  from  foreign  countries  have 
been  nearly  all  traders  of  some  sort  or  other.  There  is  now 
only  one  farmer  of  foreign  birth  in  the  county. 

In  19 10  the  foreign  born  and  the  native  born  of  foreign 
and  of  mixed  parentage  totaled  only  34,  about  three-tenths 
of  one  per  cent  of  the  entire  population.  In  other  words, 
305  out  of  every  306  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  county  were 
native  stock  of  more  than  two  generations  back.  In  fact 
these  people  are  descended  from  Americans  for  so  many 
generations  back  that  probably  less  than  one  per  cent  of  them 

1  Calculated  from  table  5,  p.  265. 


37]  POPULATION  37 

.outside  of  Edenton,  and  comparatively  few  there,  know  from 
just  what  part  of  the  world  their  ancestors  came.  The  pro- 
genitors of  probably  98  per  cent  of  the  present  population 
came  either  from  Africa  or  the  British  Isles.  Slavery  was 
well  established  in  the  colonies  when  Albemarle  first  began 
to  be  settled.^  The  blacks  came  in  along  with  the  whites, 
and  at  every  census  except  the  second  (1800),  the  colored 
population  has  outnumbered  the  white,  the  average  excess 
for  the  thirteen  decennial  censuses  being  10  per  cent.^ 

From  the  foregoing  pages,  even  though  nothing  further 
were  said,  one  could  form  a  fairly  good  idea  of  the  nature  of 
the  present  population.  The  pages  following,  however,  por- 
traying as  they  do  the  life  of  these  people  for  the  past  three 
and  a  half  decades,  will  give  to  him  who  has  the  interest  to 
continue,  their  character  in  considerable  detail. 

*  Whites,  Indians,  and  Negroes  were  all  held  in  bondage  at  this  time. 

Ashe,  op.  cit.,  p.  84. 
2  Cf.  table  4,  p.  264. 


PART  II 
DEVELOPMENT  OF  ECONOMIC  LIFE 


CHAPTER  III 
Agriculture  in  the  Eighties  ' 

general  character  of  the  occupations 
of  the  people 

Chowan  in  j88o  was  (and  continues  to  be)  preemi- 
nently a  farming  county.  The  other  industries  were 
largely  what  might  be  termed  *'  bye-industries  " — occu- 
pations followed  intermittently  by  the  farmer  when  he 
felt  that  he  could  leave  his  farm  for  a  few  days  or  weeks. 
In  fact,  as  these  were  carried  on,  many  of  them  might 
almost  be  said  to  have  constituted  part  of  farming,  so 
undifferentiated  were  they  from,  and  necessary  to,  the 
actual  farm  work.  Few  of  the  various  occupations  had 
called  into  being  special  classes  who  followed  them  and 
them  only;  consequently  the  farmer  was  forced  to  carry 
them  on  himself  in  order  that  his  farming  might  go  on 
to  the  best  advantage.  The  agricultural  interests  of  the 
millers,  merchants,  carpenters,  cobblers,  schoolmasters, 
and  blacksmiths  not  infrequently  yielded  them  a  larger 
return  than  did  their  trade.  Even  many  of  the  profes- 
sional men  (lawyers,  physicians,  clergymen)  received  a 
considerable  portion  of  their  income  from  their  own 
farms,  some  of  them  actually  doing  farm  labor. 

With  the  exception  of  those  living  at  the  county-seat, 
a  town  of  less  than  fourteen  hundred,  the  entire  popula- 
tion of  the  county  (in  1880,  7,900)  lived  on  farms,  and 

*  The  "  eighties "  in  this  volume  will  always  refer  to  those  of  the 
nineteenth  century. 

41]  41 


42  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [42 

the  vast  majority  of  the  townspeople  had  farming  inter- 
ests. 

GETTING  LAND  READY  FOR  CULTIVATION 

At  the  time  that  this  account  begins  no  large  amount 
of  land  was  being  cleared,  but  many  of  the  more  substan- 
tial farmers  were  taking  in  some  new  ground  every  few 
years ;  a  few  cleared  a  little  practically  every  year.  So, 
in  order  to  obtain  a  complete  picture  of  agriculture,  and 
obtain  it  in  is  proper  chronology,  let  us  first  look  at  the 
process  of  getting  land  under  the  plow. 

Timber. — At  this  time  timber,  except  the  very  finest 
of  heart  and  such  other  timber  as  was  near  streams  large 
enough  to  float  it,  had  little  or  no  value.  On  land  that 
was  to  be  cleared  it  was  simply  an  incumbrance  to  be 
gotten  rid  of  with  the  least  possible  cost.  The  larger 
trees,  except  what  few  were  used  for  rails,  boards,  and 
building  purposes  on  the  place,  were  generally  "deaded."  ' 

Beading. — There  were  two  or  three  reasons  why  the 
trees  were  "  deaded  "  rather  than  cut  immediately.  In 
the  first  place,  it  was  thought  that  if  the  trees  were  deaded, 
instead  of  being  cut  down  green,  sonie  of  the  strength 
drawn  by  the  tree  from  the  soil  would  flow  back  to  it. 
Again,  trees  would  season  better  standing  than  when 
lying  on  the  ground,  and  so  were  more  easily  burned. 
Lastly,  the  deaded  pine  trees  were  frequently  left  stand- 
ing for  a  few  years  after  the  ground  had  actually  been 
brought  into  cultivation.  Since  the  larger  stumps  were 
never  removed  till  after  the  land  had  been  farmed  for 
years,  it  caused  no  added  inconvenience  in  working  the 
land  to  leave  the  entire  dead  trees  standing  for  one  or 

1  The  "deading"  process  is  simply  the  chopping  of  a  line  some  two 
inches  deep  around  the  tree  with  an  axe.  This  line  is  anywhere  from 
18  inches  to  4  feet  above  the  ground. 


43]  AGRICULTURE  IN  THE  EIGHTIES  43 

two  seasons,'  and  had  the  advantage  of  allowing  one  to 
put  his  ground  in  cultivation  more  quickly.  The  trees 
could  be  taken  care  of  later  when  the  farmer  had  more 
time,  and  besides,  they  made  most  excellent  firewood. 
As  a  rule,  however,  the  trees  were  all  cut  and  burned 
before  the  land  was  put  under  the  plow.  The  larger  trees 
were  deaded  from  one  to  three  winters  before  the  begin- 
ning of  the  actual  clearing,  which  started  with  the  cut- 
ting and  burning  of  the  smaller  trees  and  undergrowth. 
Later  the  larger  trees  were  cut  down,  cut  into  sticks  that 
could  be  handled,  and  with  the  assistance  of  the  neigh- 
bors heaped  together.  This  process  of  heaping  was 
known  as  *Mog  rolling."' 

Roots  and  Stumps. — After  everything  was  burned  off, 
the  ground  was  hoed,  every  inch  of  it,  by  hand,  with  an 
ordinary  grubbing  hoe.  On  an  average  this  required 
from  twelve  to  fifteen  days  to  the  acre,  and  at  that,  re- 
moved only  the  roots  and  smaller  stumps,  the  larger 
ones  being  left.  All  except  the  pineheart  stumps  rotted 
within  a  few  years.  These  latter  were  **  lightwood  "  ^ 
and  were  good  for  from  twenty-five  to  one  hundred 
years,  or  longer,  if  they  were  not  removed.  The  only 
way  the  farmer  knew  of  doing  this  was  to  dig  them  up. 
If  this  had  been  attempted  at  any  time  within  two  or  three 
years  after  clearing  (before  sufificient  time  had  elapsed 
for  the  rotting  away  of  the  sap),  the  getting  up  of  the 
worst  of  them  would   have  taken  one  man  a  week  or 

*  Those  who  followed  this  practice  often  left  the  trees  so  long  that  the 
limbs  would  rot,  fall  off,  and  tear  up  the  growing  crop.  In  case  of 
winds,  whole  trees  would  sometimes  blow  down,  doing  considerable 
damage. 

2  Cf.  infra,  p.  181  for  the  social  features  of  "  log-rolling." 
'  "  Lightwood  "  is  pine  wood  that  is  thoroughly  saturated  with  turpen- 
tine.   The  best  of  it  will  last  almost  indefinitely,  either  in  the  ground 
or  out  of  it. 


44  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [44 

more.  Even  after  they  had  stood  for  ten  or  fifteen  years 
it  frequently  required  a  half-day  or  more  to  get  one  up. 
For  this  reason  they  were  left  for  years,  occupying  much 
space  and  interfering  with  cultivation.  The  prevalence 
of  stumpy  land  was  and  is  one  of  the  factors  making  for 
the  slow  introduction  of  improved  farm  tools  and  ma- 
chinery. Many  a  plow  has  been  wrecked  on  these 
stumps,  and  many  a  plowman's  patience  severely  tried  by 
them.  Many  horses  will  not  plow  in  stumpy  ground, 
especially  if  they  are  fretful  and  have  a  tendency  to  kick. 
Often  when  plowing  a  fractious  horse,  as  you  pulled  the 
plow  out  to  go  around  a  stump,  he  would  strike  a  trot 
and  perhaps  jerk  the  plow  against  the  stump  or  an  un- 
covered root,  causing  the  handles  to  fly  up  and  deliver 
you  a  "  solar  plexus"  if  you  were  a  man,  and  an  "upper- 
cut  "  on  the  jaw  if  you  were  a  ten-  or  twelve-year-old 
lad,  either  of  which  was  of  sufficient  force  to  have  caused 
you  to  "  take  the  count,"  had  it  not  been  that  you  were 
hanging  on  to  the  plow  handles  for  dear  life. 

The  "  grubs  "  (roots  and  small  stumps  hoed  up)  were 
raked  together  and  burned.  In  this  way  much  of  the 
vegetable  matter  was  taken  off  the  land  at  the  start,  in- 
stead of  being  allowed  to  lie  and  rot  and  thus  increase 
the  humus.  The  method  followed  doubtless  gave  a 
better  crop  for  the  first  year  or  two,  but  the  land  wore 
out  and  washed  away  far  more  quickly  than  it  otherwise 
would  have  done,  besides  yielding,  after  the  first  few 
years,  a  smaller  annual  return. 

Fencing. — The  land  cleared,  the  next  thing  was  to  fence 
it.  This,  too,  was  a  slow  and  laborious  process.  To  cut 
and  split  two  hundred  ten-foot  rails  in  average-spHtting 
timber  was  considered  a  fair  day's  work.^     Far  more  fell 

*  Unless  otherwise   stated,   a  "  clay's   work "   always  means   a  day's 
•work  for  the  average  able-bodied  man. 


45]  AGRICULTURE  IN  THE  EIGHTIES  45 

below  this  number  than  went  above  it.  In  this  section 
"mauling"  (splitting)  rails  has  for  generations  been 
synonymous  with  "hard  work." 

The  fence  was  laid  in  the  form  of  a  continuous  suc- 
cession of  "w's"  a  bit  flattened  out,  the  corners  or 
angles  being  a  little  m^ore  than  right  angles.  This  is 
what  is  known  as  the  "worm  fence."  A  legal  fence  was 
ten  rails  high,  scotched,  and  as  the  phrase  went,  "pig 
tight,  bull  strong,  and  horse  high."  On  this  basis  a 
good  man  could  cut  and  maul  enough  rails  in  a  day  to 
run  forty  yards  of  fence,  provided  he  had  fair  timber. 

Ditching. — If  the  land  was  to  be  ditched,  it  was  com- 
monly done  the  year  it  was  deaded.  Had  there  been 
more  ditching  done  there  would  have  been  fewer 
drowned-out  crops,  especially,  upon  the  type  of  soils 
known  as  the  "Portsmouth  series."'  The  few  ditches 
used  were  not  only  open — tile  draining  being  unknown 
— but  were  too  shallow  to  properly  take  off  the  water. 

SIZE    OF   FARMS 

Altho  in  1880  Chowan  had  a  few  large  farms,  it  was 
primarily  a  county  of  small  ones,  the  average  num^ber  of 
acres  of  improved  land  per  farm  beirg  50.3.  For  45.1 
per  cent,  of  farms  the  average  was  14.6  acres,  or  less,  and 
for  another  23.2  per  cent,  the  average  was  only  31.5 
acres. "*  The  average  number  of  acres  of  im.proved  land 
per  "standard  work  animal "^  (the  equivalent  of  a  mature 
horse  or  mule)  at  this  time  was  34,  which  may  be  re- 
garded as  constituting  a  one-horse  farm.  Measured  then 
in  terms  of  "  standard  work  animals  "  used  to  till  them, 
more  than  two-fifths  of  the  farms  averaged  less  than 
half-horse  in  size,  and  almost  another  quarter  averaged 

1  Cf.  supra,  p.  18.  2  cf.  table  10,  p.  2^Z- 

«  Cf.  infra,  pp.  51,  274. 


^6  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [46 

under    one-horse,  leaving    fewer   than  one-third  of    the 
farms  (31.7  per  cent.)  that  were  more  than  one-horse. 

FARM    IMPLEMENTS 

Amount  and  Value. — Agriculture  here  was  distinctly 
a  hand  industry  carried  on  with  few  and  simple  tools. 
With  the  possible  exception  of  the  cotton  planter,  there 
was  nothing  among  the  farmer's  implements  that  would 
be  classed  as  a  machine.  There  were  no  weeders,  no 
cultivators,  no  mowers,  no  manure  spreaders,  no  peanut 
planters — in  short,  no  machinery  of  any  kind — just  a  few 
simple  tools.  Commercial  fertilizers  were  all  distributed 
with  the  hand,  and  all  other  manures  were  spread  by 
hand  with  a  shovel  from  a  cart,  fifty  loads '  being  counted 
a  good  day's  work.  The  average  value  of  tools  and  ma- 
chinery per  acre  of  improved  land  for  the  whole  county 
was  64.5  cents. '  If  on  this  basis  each  farm  is  credited 
with  tools  and  machinery  in  proportion  to  its  size,  more 
than  45  per  cent  of  them  had  less  then  $9.50  worth  of 
farming  implements,  and  more  than  another  23  per  cent. 
less  than  $22.50.  ^  As  noted  in  the  previous  paragraph, 
less  than  one-third  of  the  farms  (in  fact  little  more  than 
three-tenths)  were  more  than  one-horse  in  size,  and  yet, 
as  a  rule,  it  was  only  on  a  two-horse  farm  that  all  the 
implements  necessary  for  even  the  low  standard  of  cul- 
tivation then  in  vogue  were  found.  Such  implements  as 
cradles  (known  also  as  scythes)  and  cotton-planters  were 
owned  by  only  a  few.  Frequently  there  were  only  two 
or  three  of  each  in  a  whole  neighborhood  of  five  or  six 
square  miles.  This  state  of  affairs  ne<^essitated  a  consid- 
erable amount  of  borrowing  among  the  smaller  farmers. 

*A  "load,"  in  this  treatise  will  always  mean  a  load  for  a  one-horse 
team. 

2  Calculations  made  from  table  6,  p.  269. 

^Calculations  based  on  tables  6  and  10,  pp.  269,  273. 


47]  AGRICULTURE  IN  THE  EIGHTIES  47 

The  number  and  kind  of  implements  commonly  found 
on  a  representative  two-horse  farm  were  about  as 
follows : 

Two  carts  and  wheels 
One  rail-cart  body 
Two  turn-plows 
One  cotton  plow 
Two  sets  of  plow  gear 
Two  sets  of  cart  gear 
One  spade 
Two  shovels 
One  pitchfork 
One  grubbing  hoe 
Six  weed  hoes 
One  hand  rake 
One  harrow 
One  grass  blade 

Carts. — The  cart  is  a  two-wheel  vehicle  having  a  body 
five  feet  long,  three  feet  wide,  two  and  one-half  feet  high, 
the  two  sides  permanently  boarded  up  to  within  six 
inches  of  the  top  rail  and  the  front  end  boarded  up  about 
halfway,  while  for  the  remainder  of  the  front  end  and 
entire  hind  end  there  are  boards  (one  fore  board  and 
two  hind  boards)  that  can  be  put  in  and  taken  out  at 
will.  When  it  is  desired  to  close  the  six-inch  space  be- 
low the  top  rails,  a  thin  board  is  either  wattled  in  or  tied 
on.  The  wheels  are  five  feet  high  and  two  inches  on  the 
tread.  The  axle,  while  now  occasionally  of  iron,  in 
former  days  was  practically  always  of  wood.  The  body 
rests  directly  upon  the  axle,  the  putting  of  springs  under 
a  cart  never  even  being  considered.' 

*  Occasionally  there  was  seen  what  was  known  as  a  "  spring  cart,** 
but  this  was  a  light  affair  just  for  "  knocking  about  in  "  (driving  around 
to  the  store,  or  elsewhere,  with  only  a  small  load). 


^8  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [48 

On  a  farm  where  there  were  two  carts  one  was  invari- 
ably a  "tumbler"  (tip  cart),  built  especially  for  haul- 
ing dirt  and  other  m.aterials  that  were  to  be  dumped. 
This  differed  from  the  other  cart  only  in  that  its  load 
could  be  dumped  without  unhitching,  and  that  the 
wheels  were  frequently  from  six  to  twelve  inches  lower 
than  the  regulation  height,  a  feature  w  hich  made  loading 
much  easier.  This  cart  was  used  not  only  for  hauling 
dirt  and  manure,  but  for  all  rough  or  dirty  work.  The 
first  cart  described  was  known  as  the  "Sunday"  or 
**  best "  cart.  Possibly  one  farmer  in  fifty  owned  a 
wagon,  and  one  in  a  hundred  a  buggy.  Hence,  w^ith 
the  exception  of  rails,  lumber,  and  sometimes  bales  of 
cotton,  the  vast  majority  (more  than  ninety-five  per 
cent)'  of  all  hauling  and  traveling  was  done  in  carts. 
A  "seat  board"  could  be  arranged  so  as  to  seat  two 
persons  comfortably,  that  is,  as  comfortably  as  it  is 
possible  to  be  w'hen  sitting  on  a  hard  board  in  a  spring- 
less  vehicle  running  over  rough  roads.  This  was  simply 
a  plain  board  some  eight  inches  wide,  extending  across 
the  body  of  the  cart  and  resting  upon  the  bottom  rails 
on  either  side  of  the  body,  the  rails  being  some  twenty 
inches  above  the  flooring  of  the  cart.  The  seat  board 
could  be  put  in  and  taken  out  at  a  moment's  notice. 
When  more  than  two  grown  persons  were  riding,  it  was 
generally  taken  out  and  all  hands  stood  up,  or  else  some 
chairs  were  put  in  and  all  sat  down.  The  latter  was 
usually  the  case  when  there  were  w'omen  riding  who  had 
passed  the  girlhood  stage.  Sometimes,  in  order  to 
make  the  board  a  bit  easier,  a  folded  bedquilt,  an  old 
coat,  or  an  old  sack,  was  spread  on  it.  Occasionally  a 
quilt   was   spread   on   the  cart   bottom,   and  everybody 

'  My  own  estimate. 


49]  AGRICULTURE  IN  THE  EIGHTIES  49 

curled  up  on  it.  A  cart  would  hold  six  or  eight  adults. 
If  this  many  were  riding  together  they  lined  up  on  both 
sides,  using  the  top  rails  as  hand-holds. 

In  each  top  rail  were  either  five  or  six  slits,  or  five  or 
six  staples.  Into  these  were  placed  hoops  upon  which 
was  stretched  a  canvas.  When  thus  arranged  it  was 
usually  known  as  a  "  covered-cart,"  but  sometimes  as 
the  "  Gates  county  buggy."  ^  Covered  carts  were  used 
chiefly  by  the  "carters"^  in  hauling  to  and  from  Nor- 
folk, and  were  a  familiar  sight  along  the  principal  roads 
leading  to  that  city. 

The  description  of  the  cart  has  been  given  thus  min- 
utely because  it  has  played,  and  continues  to  play,  such 
an  important  role  in  the  lives  of  these  people,  and  be- 
cause it  seems  to  be  a  product  of  this  section.  So  far 
as  I  have  been  able  to  learn,  this  type  of  vehicle  is  known 
nowhere  except  in  Chowan  and  the  three  or  four  adjoin- 
ing counties,  and  I  am  not  aware  of  a  description  of  it 
anywhere  else  in  print.^  It  seems  to  have  originated  in 
Gates,  the  county  just  north  of  Chowan. 

Rail-carts. — The  rail-cart  body  was  simply  two  long 
shafts  held  together  by  cross-bars,  into  the  ends  of 
which  were  placed  "  rounds "  (wooden  pegs  eighteen 
to  twenty  inches  long)  to  hold  in  the  rails,  lumber,  or 
other  material.  The  rail-cart  was  comparatively  little 
used  except  at  certain  seasons  of  the  year,  so  had  no  set 
of  wheels  of  its  own.  When  it  was  needed,  the  carts 
were  "  shifted  " — one  of  the  regular  cart  bodies  taken 
off  the  wheels  and  the  rail-cart  body  set  on  in  its  stead. 

1  Cf.  Harper's  Magazine,  vol.  xiv,  p.  443  (March  1857).  The  writer 
says  further,  "The  buggy,  so  called,  probably  in  derision,  is  a  cart 
covered  with  a  white  cotton  awning." 

2  Cf.  infra,  pp.  135-8. 

^  There  are  some  pen  sketches  of  the  covered  cart  on  p.  447,  vol.  xiv. 
of  Harper's  Magazine,  but  no  verbal  description. 


^O  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [50 

Plows. — The  turn-plow  was  used  for  plowing  all  crops, 
except  the  first  and  second  plowing  of  cotton.  The 
cotton  plow  was  used  for  cotton  only. 

Hoes. — The  weed  hoe  generally  used  was  the  sort 
known  as  the  "  ellwell."  This  was  a  hoe  which,  instead 
of  having  a  small  shank  or  neck  fitted  into  a  helve,  had 
an  eye  two  inches  or  more  in  diameter,  into  which  the 
helve  was  fitted.  This  big  eye,  reinforced,  covered  a 
quarter  or  more  of  the  back  of  the  hoe,  making  it  about 
twice  as  heavy  as  an  ordinary  shank,  or  goose-neck, 
hoe,  and  causing  to  collect  on  it  a  great  mass  of  dirt, 
which  still  more  increased  the  weight.  This  feature  was 
especially  aggravating  if  the  dirt  was  a  bit  sticky.  The 
grubbing  hoe  was  used  for  hoeing  new  ground  and  for 
hoeing  up  dirt  that  was  to  be  hauled  into  the  field. 

Pulverizers. — The  only  varieties  of  pulverizers  used 
were  the  clumsy  harrows  and  rakes.  The  frame  of  the 
harrow  was  made  of  wood,  and  frequently  also  the  teeth. 
If  the  ground  was  at  all  rough,  it  choked  up  very  badly, 
and  in  general  was  very  inelBcient.  The  rake,  a  hand 
affair,  often  of  wood,  was  used  for  raking  up  straw,  and 
for  raking  up  roots  in  clearing  new  ground. 

Gearing. — A  cart  gear  consisted  of  a  pair  of  hames, 
a  collar,  a  bridle,  a  saddle,  a  back  band,  a  pair  of  lines, 
and  a  pair  of  tugs,  the  latter  being  usually  of  leather  in 
1880,  tho  now  iron  chains  are  used  almost  exclusively. 

The  plow  gear  was  simply  a  cart  gear  minus  the  sad- 
dle, back  band,  and  tugs,  plus  a  special  back  band,  a 
singletree,  and  traces,  which  in  the  eighties  were  fre- 
quently of  leather.  At  present,  few,  if  any,  use  anything 
other  than  chains. 


^l]  AGRICULTURE  IN  THE  EIGHTIES  51 

WORK  ANIMALS 

Oxen. — In  1880,  14.3  per  cent  of  the  "  work  animals  " 
(all  mature  oxen,  horses,  and  mules)  of  the  county  were 
oxen.  In  calculating  the  number  of  "  standard  work 
animals "  the  mature  horse  and  the  mature  mule  are 
both  considered  ''  standard  work  animals "  and  two 
oxen  are  reckoned  as  equivalent  to  one  of  them.'  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  however,  for  many  purposes  this  is  far 
too  high  a  rating.  For  instance,  in  plowing,  two  oxen 
will  do  about  as  much  in  a  day  as  will  one  horse.  Now, 
if  a  person  could  work  twice  as  many  oxen  as  horses,  two 
oxen  would  be  worth  as  much  for  work  as  would  one 
horse.  But  it  so  happens  that  one  man  can  plow  just  as 
many  horses  as  oxen,  which  means  that  in  plowing  oxen 
one  has  to  feed  and  pay  two  hands  (if  working  hired  labor, 
and  if  one's  own  force,  it  amounts  to  the  same)  to  get  the 
plowing  of  one  horse  done.  Thus,  for  plowing,  the  value 
of  the  ox  dwindles  to  rather  small  proportions.  When  it 
comes  to  hauling  and  traveling  beyond  very  short  dis- 
tances, his  value  is  again  quite  small,  tho  for  short  hauls 
he  is  good,  and  especially  so  if  the  ground  is  either  very 
rough  or  very  muddy.  The  chief  advantages  in  working 
him  are  the  following  :  first,  he  can  be  fed  much  stuff 
which  many  horses  will  not  eat;  second,  when  not  at 
work  he  can  be  let  loose  and  allowed  to  forage  for  his 
own  living ;  and  third,  when  incapacitated  for  work  he 
can  be  turned  into  beef. 

Horses  and  Mules. — What  mules  and  horses  there 
were,  were  mostly  light-weights  of  medium  quality,  and 
frequently  in  too  thin  order  to  do  their  best  possible  work. 
But  even  if  they  had  all  been  first-class  animals,  and  if  two 
oxen   were  equal  to  one  good   horse,  there  would  still 

1  Cf.  table  II  and  foot-note  to  same,  p.  274. 


52  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [52 

have  been  far  too  few  for  the  proper  tilth  of  the  acreage 
under  cultivation.  In  1880  there  was  one  "standard 
work  animal  "  to  every  34  acres  of  improved  land.' 

SOIL   PREPARATION 

Plowing. — Seldom,  if  ever,  was  the  ground  properly 
prepared  for  planting,  In  the  first  place  it  was  scratched 
from  three  to  five  inches  deep,  rather  than  plowed.  The 
vast  majority  of  all  plowing  was  done  with  single  animals, 
most  of  which,  as  noted  in  the  previous  paragraph,  were 
small,  and  many  of  a  rather  poor  quality.  In  some  sec- 
tions a  person  seen  plowing  a  two-horse  team  would 
have  created  no  small  excitement,  and  one  caught  plow- 
ing his  land  twelve  or  fifteen  inches  deep  would  have 
been  considered  by  many  a  fit  subject  for  the  lunatic  asy- 
lum. When  first  cleared,  the  soil,  except  that  in  the 
swamps  and  bottoms,  ranged  from  six  to  thirty  inches 
deep,  with  comparatively  little  of  it  more  than  ten  inches.^ 
The  manner  of  cultivation,  instead  of  increasing  the 
depth,  served  only  to  decrease  it.;  It  was  thought  to  be 
almost  a  crime  to  turn  up  any  clay,  or  yellow  dirt ;  sub- 
soiling  was  little  known,  and  practically  nothing  was  done 
to  prevent  the  continual  washing  away  and  leaching  out 
of  the  soil.  Consequently,  after  a  few  years'  cultivation, 
much  soil  became  so  thin  and  its  productivity  so  low, 
that  it  would  be  allowed  to  grow  up  again  into  forest. 

Pulverizing. — Disc  harrows  and  other  modern  soil  pul- 
verizers had  not  yet  put  in  their  appearance.  Even  the 
inefficient  ones  above  described  were  little  used,  since 
the  value  of  making  the  soil  line  and  loose  was  not  ap- 
preciated. It  was  no  rare  thing  to  see  the  hard,  close 
variety  of  lands  covered  with  clods  ranging  as  high  as 

1  Cf.  table  II  and  foot-notes  to  same,  p.  274. 

^  Field  Operations,  Bureau  of  Soils,  op.  cit.,  p.  229  et  seq. 


53]  AGRICULTURE  IN  THE  EIGHTIES  53 

ten  inches  or  more  across.  The  harrows  of  that  time 
had  little  effect  on  such  land,  even  when  used  on  it,  and 
so  it  was  frequently  necessary  to  take  hoes  and  beat  a 
few  clods  to  pieces  in  order  to  get  enough  loose  dirt 
to  cover  the  seed. 

MANURING 

Commercial  Fertilizers. — As  for  manure,  comparatively 
little  was  used.  In  1880  the  average  expenditure  for 
commercial  fertilizers  per  acre  of  improved  land  in  the 
county  was  approximately  fourteen  cents ' — for  all  farms, 
an  average  of  $7.04  each. 

Barnyard  Manure. — Counting  horses,  mules,  and  work 
oxen,  there  was,  on  an  average,  one  work  animal  to  every 
31.6  acres  of  improved  land.^  These  constituted  the 
principal  stock  from  which  any  manure  was  made.  What 
few  cattle  there  were,  other  than  work  oxen,  mostly  ran 
loose  in  the  woods,  and  frequently  for  months  at  a  time 
were  never  seen  by  their  owners.  Those  that  did  happen 
to  come  up  were  rarely  penned,  but  instead,  layout  in  the 
road  in  front  of  the  gate,  befouling  the  approach  to  one's 
home,  and  in  general,  making  of  themselves  a  nuisance, 
when  they  might  have  been  making  some  much-needed 
manure.  Many  of  the  farmers  made  no  manure  at  all, 
except  that  from  their  one  or  two  work  animals,  and 
possibly  a  load  or  two  in  the  hen  house.  The  more  in- 
dustrious, however,  made  a  bit  wherever  they  could. 
For  instance,  where  hogs  were  penned  for  a  few  weeks 
before  killing,  they  would  be  penned  ^  upon  forty  or  fifty 
loads  of  dirt  hauled  in  from  the  woods.  Some  made  an- 
other forty  or  fifty  loads  of  pretty  fair  manure  at  the 
back  door  of  the  kitchen  where  the  dish-water  and  other 

1  Calculated  from  tables  6  and  12,  pp.  269,  275. 

2  Cf.  table  II,  p.  274.  3  cj^  infra,  p.  74. 


24  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [54 

sewage  was  dumped. '  A  few  made  "  lots  "  (enclosures) 
for  their  cattle,  hauled  in  dirt,  and  secured  twenty  or 
thirty  loads  of  manure  in  this  way. 

Woods  Mold,  Swamp-Mud,  Fence-lock  Dirt  and  Ashes. 
— During  the  interval  between  the  time  when  crops  were 
laid  by  in  the  summer  and  the  time  they  were  housed  in 
the  fall,  some  went  into  the  woods  and  dug  up  and  hauled 
out  dirt.  Part  of  this  was  dumped  in  single  loads  on 
the  ground  that  was  "  lying  out "  (not  being  cultivated 
that  year),  and  later  spread  either  broadcast  or  down  be- 
tween the  old  rows,  and  part  was  hauled  up  into  banks  to 
stay  till  the  spring,  when  the  stables  (these  were  cleaned 
out  only  in  spring)  were  cleaned  out  and  their  contents 
composted  with  this  dirt.  A  few  went  into  the  swamps, 
which  became  fairly  dry  in  the  late  summer  and  early 
fall,  and  hauled  out  great  banks  of  swamp  mud.  Others 
raked  out  their  fence-locks  and  hauled  this  into  the  fields. 
Occasionally  in  winter  some  would  go  into  the  woods, 
cut  down  the  undergrowth,  and  burn  it  for  ashes,  which 
were  valuable  as  a  fertilizer  chiefly  because  of  the  potash 
they  contained.  The  commercial  value  of  what  ashes 
one  man  could  thus  produce  in  a  day  would  probably 
not  exceed  twenty-five  cents. 

Burnt  Dirt,  Fish-offal,  and  Marie. — About  this  time 
there  came  in  the  custom  of  burning  or  smoking  dirt. 
The  method  of  doing  this  was  to  make  a  pile  of  two  or 
three  turns  of  wood,  or  old  rails,  fire  it,  and  when  it  got 
to  burning  well,  smother  it  with  leaves  or  pine  straw, 
and  then  throw  on  a  load  or  two  of  dirt.  After  it  was 
all  thoroughly  covered  up,  two  or  three  holes  were 
poked  thru  it  to  give  it  just  enough  air  to  keep  the  fire 
going  till   the  wood  was  all  consumed.      These   heaps 

1  Cf.  infra,  p.  216. 


55]  AGRICULTURE  IN  THE  EIGHTIES  55 

would  sometimes  burn  for  a  week  or  ten  days.  The  aim 
was  to  keep  them  burning,  or  smoking,  as  long  as  pos- 
sible, for  the  longer  they  burned  the  better  the  dirt  was 
thought  to  be.  It  was  the  passing  of  the  smoke  thru 
the  dirt,  rather  than  any  burning  it  received,  that  was 
supposed  to  enrich  it.  Whether  or  not  this  burning 
or  smoking  which  the  dirt  received  was  of  any  value, 
I  have  never  learned.  By  many,  smoked  dirt  was  highly 
praised;  nevertheless,  the  effort  to  make  manure  by  this 
process  has  been  practically  discontinued  for  years. 
Along  the  Chowan  River  and  Albemarle  Sound  was  a 
strip  of  territory  from  two  to  five  miles  wide  in  which 
was  used  most  of  the  offal  from  the  fisheries.  This  fish- 
offal  is  splendid  manure.  A  few  farmers  also  hauled  out 
some  marie. 

Crop  Rotation. — Except  a  few  peas  (locally  known  as 
**  corn-field  peas"),  which  were  planted^  in  the  corn  at 
the  time  of  hining""  it,  the  planting  of  leguminous  or 
special  nitrogen-producing  crops  for  the  purpose  of  en- 
riching the  soil  was  rarely  practiced.  Even  the  peas 
sowed  in  the  corn  were  more  for  hog-feed  than  for  fer- 
tilization. Not  only  did  few,  if  any  at  all,  practice  any 
sort  of  a  systematic  crop  rotation  ^  designed  to  increase, 
or  even  to  maintain,  the  soil  fertility,  but  it  was  a  com- 
mon thing  for  one  crop  to  be  planted  on  the  same  piece 
of  ground  fifteen  or  twenty  years  in  succession.  The 
idea  that  more  could  not  be  taken  off  the  land  than  was 
put  on  it  without  leaving  it  to  just  that  extent  depleted, 
seems  never  to  have  dawned  upon  them.     Many  farmers 

1  Sometimes  they  were  planted  in  hills  between  the  hills  of  corn,  but 
the  more  usual  method  was  to  sow  them  broadcast. 

2  Cf,  infra,  foot-note  p.  59. 

^  There  was  crop  rotation,  to  be  sure,  but  usually  the  object  was  to 
more  thoroughly  "skin"  the  land,  rather  than  to  increase  its  productivity. 


^6  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [56 

let  a  portion  of  their  fields  lie  out  each  year  to  ''  rest." 
They  seemed  to  think  that  land  got  tired  much  like 
human  beings,  and  similarly,  needed  a  vacation.  The 
land  lying  out  grew  a  coat  of  vegetation,  which  if  plowed 
in  (it  was  often  burned)  added  to  the  soil  some  much- 
needed  humus.  This  was  the  prime  good  of  the  "  rest- 
ing." Most  land,  after  a  few  years'  cultivation  without 
manuring,  ceased  to  bring  enough  to  pay  for  the  labor 
expended  in  working  it.  Much  was  tilled  long  after 
this  point  had  been  reached.  Often  land  was  tended 
that  did  not  yield  an  annual  average  of  three  bushels  of 
corn  to  the  acre.  The  remark  often  heard,  "  That  man 
won't  get  seed  corn,"  not  infrequently  proved  to  be  true 
prophecy. 

CROP  PLANTING 

All  seed,  except  cotton,  were  planted  by  hand,  and 
even  cotton  seed,  by  some  farmers  were  still  being  rolled 
in  wet  dirt  and  sowed  in  the  primitive  way.  This  was 
quite  generally  the  case  when  only  a  small  piece  of  cotton 
was  planted. 

All  crops  were  planted  on  high  beds.  In  the  case  of 
sweet  potatoes,  the  bed  could  not  be  plowed  up  high 
enough  to  suit  some  people,  so  they  actually  raked  it 
into  a  ridge  from  one  end  of  the  row  to  the  other  with 
a  hoe.  Having  the  crop  on  a  high  ridge  both  increased 
the  difficulty  of  tillage  and  hastened  the  drying  out  of 
the  ground,  thus  lessening  the  crop  yield.  It  also  rad- 
ically influenced  the  method  of  cultivation,  being  one  of 
the  causes  of  the  slow  introduction  of  such  modern  farm 
tools  as  the  various  types  of  weeders  and  cultivators, 
since  these,  in  order  to  be  very  effective,  must  have 
crops  planted  comparatively  level. 

Planting  Corn. — In  order  that  the  tediousness  of  the 


--r]  AGRICULTURE  IN  THE  EIGHTIES  57 

process  of  planting  may  be  to  some  extent  realized,  let 
us  look  at  the  details  of  planting  corn,  which  will  serve 
as  a  fair  illustration.  After  the  bed  was  ready,  a  man 
with  a  horse  and  either  a  "  streaker  "  or  a  plow,  ''  streaked 
it  out"  (ran  a  light  drill  on  the  top  of  the  bed),  another 
person  followed  with  a  gauge  ^  and  dropped  the  corn, 
while  a  third  person  followed  him  with  a  hoe,  and  cov- 
ered it.  If  the  ground  was  at  all  rough  it  took  four  men 
to  follow  one  horse  and  plow — one  to  streak,  and  three 
to  drop  and  cover.  If  it  was  in  good  condition  so  that 
the  grain  could  be  covered  with  one's  foot,  and  if  the 
distance  was  guessed  at  instead  of  being  marked  off  with 
a  gauge,  five  men,  and  occasionally  four,  could  keep  two 
horses  going. 

CROP    CULTIVATION 

Crtcde  Methods. — With  only  the  few  simple  tools  pre- 
viously described,''  cultivation  was  of  necessity  very  crude 
and  laborious.  But  after  making  all  due  allowance  for 
poor  tools,  the  methods  followed  were  far  more  ineffi- 
cient than  they  might  have  been.  To  begin  with,  the 
ground  was  commonly  broken  up  only  from  three  to  six 
inches  deep  on  a  level.  This  usually  started  in  March, 
but  many  did  not  finish  till  late  in  May.  Of  course, 
there  was  some  planting  done  in  the  meantime,  much  of 
the  ground  being  planted  very  soon  after  breaking. 
Most  ground  was  plowed  but  once  before  being  planted. 
The  harrow  was  little  used  by  any,  and  by  many  not  at 
all,    consequently   the    ground,  especially  stifif-land    soil 

1  A  corn  gauge  was  a  forked  stick  with  the  prongs  held  at  the  distance 
desired  by  a  cross  piece.  It  was  turned  with  one  hand,  while  the  corn 
was  dropped  with  the  other.  Gauges  were  always  used  by  children 
since  they  were  not  able  to  accurately  judge  distances;  they  were  used 
by  some  grown-ups. 

2  Cj,  supra,  pp.  46-50. 


^8  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [^g 

(Portsmouth  series  type),  was  nearly  always  rough  and 
cloddy. 

Tillage  was  done  according  to  custom  rather  than  ac- 
cording to  either  science  or  common  sense.     There  was 
a  definite  way  in  which  each  crop  should  be  tended,  and 
a  definite  number  of  times  it  should  be  gone  over  with 
the  hoe  and  plow.     The  customary  routine  was  followed 
almost  religiously,  regardless  of  seasons  or  pecuHar  con- 
ditions.    For  instance,  sweet  potatoes  were  worked  twice 
with  hoe  and  plow ;  corn  and  cotton,  three  times.     The 
one  all-dominating,   immediate   purpose    of   the   farmer 
was  to  kill  grass.     The  idea  of  stirring  the  soil  to  stimu- 
late the  growth  of  crops,  or  to  prevent  the  coming  of 
grass,  seems  not  to  have  occurred  to  him.     His  policy 
of  never  touching  stuff  until  after  it  had  come  up  and 
grown  to  a  fair  size,  the  fewness  of  the  times  he  worked 
it,  his  crude,  antiquated  methods  of  tillage,  and  the  fact 
that    in  summer  grass  grows  very  rapidly,  meant  that 
his   crops   were  generally  ''right"   grassy   before   each 
working.    This  was  especially  true  in  wet  weather.    Even 
if  the  season  was  dry  and  he  had  worked  his  crop  clean 
of  grass,  he  seldom  started  back  over  it  until  the  grass 
had  again  largely   taken    possession.     Why    should    he 
work  when  the   thing — grass — he  was  working  to    kill 
was  not  there?     At  least  this  seemed  to  be  his  attitude. 

In  order  to  see  the  progress  that  has  been  made  since 
the  beginning  of  the  period  under  discussion,  and  as  a 
record  for  future  reference,  it  may  be  well  to  outline  the 
methods  of  cultivating  the  principal  crops. 

Manner  of  Working  the  Chief  Crops. — Cotton  was 
"barred  off"^  on  one  side,  chopped  out,  then  '' dirted  " 

1  "  Barring  off "  was  throwing  the  dirt  from,  rather  than  to,  the 
growing  plant,  with  a  turn  plow.  This  process  put  some  dirt  down 
between  the  rows,  ready  to  be  worked  back  to  the  plants  at  the  next 
cultivation.     It  also  covered  up  the  grass  in  the  middle,  and  so  killed  it.. 


59]  AGRICULTURE  IN  THE  EIGHTIES  59 

(a  little  dirt  thrown  up  around  the  plants)  on  one  side 
with  a  cotton  plow  in  small  casting.  In  a  few  days, 
sometimes  the  same  day,  the  other  side  was  barred  off 
and  dirted.  Since  the  cotton  was  never  worked  until  it 
was  large  enough  to  be  ''blocked  out,"  '  at  its  first  work- 
ing it  was  frequently  full  of  grass,  the  getting  out  of 
which  nearly  uprooted  the  plants.  When  in  this  condi- 
tion, the  process  of  cutting  it  out  was  far  more  slow  and 
tedious  than  it  would  have  been  had  the  grass  been  kept 
down.  Since  no  effort  was  made  to  cut  it  to  a  stand, 
the  next  task  was  to  thin  it  out — a  back-breaking  job 
which  usually  fell  to  the  lot  of  the  small  children.  In 
two  or  three  weeks  it  was  "grassed"  (all  grass  either 
pulled  up  with  the  fingers,  or  cut  out  with  the  weed 
hoe),  the  middles  split  out  (the  ridges,  which  were  made 
between  the  rows  when  dirting,  plowed  up)  with  a  cotton 
plow  in  big  casting,  and  the  cotton  again  dirted.  The 
next  and  final  plowing  was  four  furrows  to  the  row  with 
the  turn-plow.  The  plow  was  immediately  followed  by 
hoe  hands  who  were  supposed  to  cut  out  or  cover  up 
any  grass  left  uncovered,  and  pull  the  dirt  up  around  the 
plant  where  the  plow  had  failed  to  lap  it.  Many  made 
hills  around  the  plants  even  where-  the  dirt  was  lapped. 
This  last  working  was  known  as  "hilling,"  or  "laying 
by."^ 

1  The  seed  were  drilled,  from  eight  to  twenty  times  as  many  being 
put  as  there  were  plants  wanted.  This  seeming  wastefulness  was 
simply  a  precaution  to  secure  a  stand.  When  the  cotton  got  about 
six  inches  high  it  was  gone  over  with  a  hoe  and  cut  into  hills  the 
desired  distance  apart.  This  process  was  known  by  several  terms,  such 
as  "  chopping,"  "  cutting  out,"  and  "  blocking  out."  \ 

2  Both  these  terms  are  descriptive,  one  expressing  the  method  of 
working,  the  other  the  fact  that  it  was  the  final  working.  In  the  final 
working  of  all  crops  the  dirt  was  literally  hilled  up  around  the  stalk, 
many  even  raking  up  from  the  middle  of  the  row  most  of  the  soil  that 
happened  to  be  left  by  the  plow. 


5o  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [60 

Corn  was  barred  off,  leaving  a  balk  of  some  twelve 
inches  wide  (it  was  left  wide  for  fear  of  injuring  the 
plant),  which  had  to  be  "wed"'  off.  In  two  or  three 
weeks  it  was  grassed  and  two  furrows  thrown  to  it  with 
the  turn-plow.  This  was  known  as  "half-hilling."  From 
two  to  four  weeks  later  it  got  the  four  hilling  furrows 
with  the  turn-plow,  and  a  working  with  the  hoe.  Corn 
had  even  a  larger  hill  made  around  the  stalk  with  the 
hoes  than  did  cotton. 

After  the  sweet  potato  ridge  became  covered  with 
grass  from  one  to  three  inches  long  (sometimes  it  was 
as  long  as  a  man's  hand),  it  was  wed  off  from  top  to 
bottom  on  both  sides.  This  ridge  was  so  large  that 
there  was  a  space  from  ten  to  fifteen  inches  wide  on 
each  side  that  had  to  be  cut  with  the  hoe.  After  weed- 
ing they  were  barred  off,  if  this  had  not  been  done  before 
the  weeding.  In  a  few  weeks  the  vines  were  turned  out 
of  every  other  middle,  and  the  middles  plowed  four  fur- 
rows to  the  row.  The  vines  were  next  turned  out  of  the 
unplowed  middles,  and  these  run  out.  The  hoe  followed, 
completing  the  piling  up  of  dirt  around  the  sprout,  in 
other  words,  completing  the  hilling  process. 

Hilling. — In  hilling  all  crops  the  ground  usually  was 
plowed  deeper  than  when  it  was  broken  in  the  spring. 
As  a  rule  the  plow  was  put  down  to  the  hard-pan,  a  bit 
of  which  frequently  was  turned  up.  When  only  every 
other  middle  was  hilled  out  at  first,  and  the  remaining 
ones  a  few  days  later,  crops  did  not  appear  to  suffer 
much,  if  the  ground  was  in  proper  order  and  rain  fol- 
lowed soon.  But  many  plowed  out  every  middle  as  they 
went,  and  did  it  when  the  ground  was  very  wet — fre- 

1  To  "  weed  "  was  to  shave  off  the  grass  and  weeds  very  lightly  with 
a  weed  hoe.    "  Wed  "  rather  than  "  weeded  "  was  used  as  the  past  tense. 


6i]  AGRICULTURE  IN  THE  EIGHTIES  6l 

quently  turning  up  in  long,  slick  rolls  from  one  end  of 
the  row  to  the  other.  In  case  this  working  was  followed 
by  several  days  of  hot  sunshine  and  no  rain,  the  stuff 
nearly  died.  This  was  especially  the  case  with  corn.  It 
would  ''fire  up"  (the  leaves  turn  permanently  yellow, 
and  many  of  the  lower  ones  dry  up  completely)  and 
never  reach  its  former  possibilities. 

SUMMARY 

If  the  object  had  been  to  exhaust  the  land  as  quickly 
as  possible,  the  method  of  cultivation  followed  by  many 
could  have  been  little  improved  upon.  As  previously 
stated,  when  the  land  was  cleared  much  of  the  vegetable 
matter  was  raked  up  and  burned  instead  of  being  allowed 
to  lie  and  rot  for  two  or  three  years  and  open  up  and 
enrich  the  soil.  In  the  second  place,  land  was  scratched 
rather  than  plowed,  hence  was  far  more  subject  to  wash- 
ing than  if  it  had  been  broken  deep,  and  also  suffered  far 
more  severely  from  both  wet  weather  and  dry.  Third, 
much  of  the  land  was  poorly  drained  and  frequently  be- 
came so  water-sobbed  that  it  produced  hardly  anything 
at  all.  Fourth,  the  principal  crops — corn  and  cotton 
— were  crops  that  were  cultivated  so  late  in  the  season 
that  there  was  time  for  but  little  vegetation,  which  might 
act  as  a  winter  cover-crop,  to  spring  up  after  their  final 
working.  Fifth,  the  legumes,  except  peas,  were  almost 
never  planted,  and  the  peas  were  largely  for  hog-feed 
rather  than  for  the  improvement  of  the  soil.  Sixth,  in 
the  spring  of  the  year  the  corn  stalks  were  cut  down  and 
burned,  and  the  fields  that  had  vegetation  heavy  enough 
to  burn,  were  generally  fired  over  in  order  to  get  the 
grass  and  weeds  out  of  the  way  for  plowing.  Seventh, 
comparatively  little  commercial  fertilizer  or  manure  of 
any  kind  was  used,  and  it  was  no  uncommon  occurrence 


^2  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [^2 

for  land  to  be  cultivated  year  after  year  without  any 
manure  whatsoever.  The  result  of  such  methods  was 
that  much  land  which  produced  well  when  first  cleared, 
at  the  expiration  of  four  or  five  years  fell  to  half,  and 
even  less,  of  its  original  productivity.  This  fact  in  turn 
caused  a  continual  abandoning  of  land  to  grow  up  again 
into  forest. 

Not  only  did  the  method  of  cultivation  exhaust  the 
soil,  but  it  was  of  the  kind  that  gave  small  return  for 
the  labor  spent.  Breaking  the  land  shallow  caused  crops 
to  be  far  easier  damaged  by  both  wet  and  dry  weather 
than  if  it  had  been  broken  deep;  plowing  the  growing 
crops  comparatively  deep,  especially  when  hilling,  plow- 
ing when  it  was  too  wet,  waiting  for  grass  before  work- 
ing— all  greatly  lessened  the  crop  yield.  Not  a  year 
passed  but  that  much  stuff  was  seriously  injured  by 
every  one  of  these  causes.  Grass  hurt  in  two  ways  : 
first,  it  fed  on  the  food  that  would  otherwise  have  nour- 
ished the  cultivated  crop ;  second,  when  the  crop  got 
"right"  grassy  before  being  worked,  it  was  so  nearly 
uprooted  in  getting  out  the  grass,  that  it  never  became 
what  it  would  have  been,  had  it  been  worked  in  time. 
There  was  enough  work  done,  but  it  was  not  rightly  di- 
rected. For  instance,  in  the  case  of  corn  (the other  crops 
were  tilled  in  a  similarly  wasteful  and  inefificient  manner) 
the  total  work  after  planting  was  eight  times  to  the  row 
with  a  man  and  horse,  and  three  times  with  a  man  and 
hoe — the  expenditure  of  enough  energy,  if  properly  ap- 
plied with  the  right  sort  of  tools  and  machinery,  to  have 
kept  in  a  better  state  of  cultivation  three  times  the  acre- 
age that  was  cultivated  by  the  method  in  vogue. 


CHAPTER  IV 

The  Chief  Farm  Products  in  the  Eighties 

quantity  and  disposition  of  crops 

The  principal  crops  ^  in  order  of  their  acreage,  were  com, 
cotton,  oats,  sweet  potatoes,  wheat,  peas,  and  Irish  potatoes. 
The  farmers  were  each  producing  largely  for  the  consump- 
tion of  their  immediate  families.  While  a  small  portion 
of  all  the  various  crops  raised  in  the  county  was  sold,  prob- 
ably more  than  ninety-eight  per  cent  of  the  total  produc- 
tion, with  the  exception  of  cotton,  was  consumed  within 
less  than  thirty  miles  of  the  site  of  its  origin,  the  greater 
part  being  consumed  on  the  farm  which  produced  it. 

Cotton — the  one  crop  planted  especially  for  market — oc- 
cupied, according  to  calculations  based  upon  the  1880  census, 
slightly  more  than  one- fourth  of  the  entire  acreage  in  actual 
cultivation.  The  average  production  of  lint  cotton  per  farm 
(including  all  farms)  in  1879  was  about  1400  pounds,  or 
something  less  than  three  bales.  Per  capita  of  the  entire 
population  of  the  county,  the  lint  cotton  production  was 
about  130  pounds.^    Thus  it  is  seen  that  the  crop  which 

1  Cf.  table  8,  p.  271. 

2  The  figures  given  here  are  calculations  based  on  data  found  in 
tables  5,  6,  and  8,  pp.  261,  265,  271,  respectively. 

The  bale  has  not  always  been  the  same.  In  the  Tenth  Census  453  lbs. 
of  lint,  and  in  the  nth  census  477  lbs.  of  Hnt,  respectively,  were  recorded 
as  a  bale.  For  many  years,  however,  the  bale  has  been  standardized  at 
500  lbs.,  and  wherever  referred  to  in  this  treatise,  unless  otherwise  in- 
dicated, it  is  this  standard  bale  that  is  meant.  The  actual  bale  varies 
within  certain  limits.  More  than  99  per  cent  of  the  bales,  however,  will 
be  included  within  the  limits,  450  lbs.  and  600  lbs.  At  many  gins  it  is 
63]  ^Z 


64  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [64 

was  depended  upon  to  furnish  most  of  the  ready  cash,  was 
comparatively  small,  and  that  if  each  person  had  received 
the  proceeds  ^  of  his  proportional  share,  it  would  have  been 
only  a  small  sum.  But  many  raised  only  a  little  cotton  and 
others  none  at  all.  Probably  more  than  three-fourths  of  the 
entire  crop  was  produced  on  fewer  than  one-third  of  the 
farms,  the  majority  of  the  farmers  having  only  a  "  cotton 
patch."  There  were  not  a  few  who  produced  less  than  a 
bale,  and  so  sold  their  crop  in  the  seed  to  the  local  merchants. 

A  small  number  of  farmers  raised  more  than  enough  corn 
to  serve  them,  but  this  went  to  their  neighbors  who  had 
failed  to  raise  what  they  needed.  The  county  as  a  whole 
did  not  supply  itself.  The  wheat  produced  was  not  suffi- 
cient to  make  the  county's  flour,  notwithstanding  the  fact 
that  there  was  comparatively  little  used.^  The  oats  pro- 
duced by  each  farmer  were  largely  fed  to  his  own  stock. 

Some  land  was  given  over  entirely  to  peas,  but  the  major 
portion  was  raised  in  the  corn,  being  either  planted  in  hills, 
between  the  hills  of  corn,  or  else  sowed  broadcast  at  the 
last  plowing  of  the  corn.  The  census  for  1880  does  not 
give  the  acreage  devoted  to  this  crop.     If  it  were  any  other 

customary  to  charge  a  flat  rate  (say  $2.50  or  $3)  for  ginning  and 
baling,  regardless  of  the  size  of  the  bale.  At  other  gins  the  charge  is  so 
much  for  baling,  and  so  much  per  hundred  pounds  of  lint  for  ginning. 
Where  the  former  practice  obtains,  obviously  it  is  to  the  farmer's  inter- 
est to  make  the  bales  large,  and  a  good  size  bale  is  preferred  in  any  case. 
Hence  in  the  early  part  of  the  season  when  the  cotton  is  heavy  and  packs 
well,  the  bales  are  large,  ranging  from  550  lbs.  to  600  lbs.  The  largest 
ginner  in  the  county  told  me  that  when  he  was  charging  a  flat  rate,  he 
put  up  one  bale  weighing  over  900  lbs.  Three  pounds  of  seed  cotton 
is  reckoned  to  one  of  lint.  Good  cotton,  however,  makes  more  than 
one  to  three:  not  infrequently  1400  lbs.  of  seed  cotton  will  make  a 
500  lb.  bale  of  lint. 

1  In  1880  "  upland  middling "'  was  selling  for  about  12  cents  a  pound. 

2  Many  families  had  flour  only  once  or  twice  a  week,  and  not  a  few 
went  for  weeks  at  a  time  with  none  whatever. 


65]      THE  CHIEF  FARM  PRODUCTS  IN  THE  EIGHTIES     65 

crop,  knowing  the  usual  production  per  acre  and  presuming 
the  number  of  bushels  given  ^  to  be  correct  (it  most  likely 
is  too  large),  a  close  approximation  could  be  made.  Owing 
to  the  conditions  of  their  cultivation,  however,  this  cannot 
be  done.  In  calculating  the  acreage  for  all  crops,  200  acres 
have  been  allowed  for  peas.  A  few  found  their  way  to  out- 
side markets,  but  they  were  mostly  consumed  at  home,  hogs 
and  people  both  coming  in  for  a  share. 

Sweet  potatoes,  like  peas,  were  produced  both  for  the 
hogs  and  for  the  table.  Irish  potatoes  were  more  of  a  gar- 
den vegetable  than  a  field  crop.  Most  families  planted  just 
enough  to  have  a  few  to  eat  during  the  growing  season. 
Comparatively  few  were  eaten  after  they  matured. 

As  for  hay,  it  was  not  made.  Less  than  seventy-five 
tons  were  mowed  in  1879,^  and  this  little  was  mowed  with 
an  ordinary  scythe  or  hand  grass-blade.  So  far  as  I  have 
been  able  to  ascertain,  in  1880  there  was  not  a  mowing  ma- 
chine in  the  county.  For  forage  the  farmers  "  pulled 
fodder"  (stripped  the  corn  leaves  from  the  stalk).  This 
is  a  hot,  nasty  job,  besides  being  a  slow,  wasteful,  un- 
economic method  of  getting  forage.  To  save  three  hun- 
dred pounds  a  day  in  fair  weather  is  good  average  work 
per  man.  During  the  fodder-pulling  season  (the  most  of 
it  is  stripped  in  August),  the  weather  is  frequently  rainy. 
As  a  consequence,  probably  from  a  third  to  a  half  of  the 
fodder  is  more  or  less  damaged  (some  of  it  to  such  an  ex- 
tent that  it  is  worth  scarcely  anything)  before  it  is  taken  in. 
Much  of  it  is  taken  up  before  it  is  well  cured,  in  order  to 
escape  probable  rains.  The  following  day  this  must  be 
thrown  out,  sunned,  and  put  up  again  that  night.  In  many 
cases  this  process  has  to  be  gone  through  with  for  two  or 
three  days,  especially  if  the  fodder  is  rather  green  and  there 

1  C/.  table  8,  p.  271.  ^  Ihid. 


66  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [66 

is  little  sunshine.  Again,  at  this  time  of  year  thunder  storms 
frequently  come  up  very  quickly  in  the  afternoon.  If  one 
has  fodder  down,  at  the  first  indication  of  a  rising  storm 
he  musters  all  hands  into  the  field,  where  they  work  as  if 
fighting  fire  till  the  fodder  is  gotten  up  or  the  threatened 
storm  has  either  blown  over  or  driven  them  to  cover. 

FRUIT 

Most  farm  owners  had  at  least  one  or  two  grape-vines 
and  a  few  fruit  trees.  These  latter  were  principally  apple, 
but  there  were  some  peach  and  pear.  The  grape  was  usually 
the  scuppemong,  a  variety  claimed  to  be  indigenous  to  the 
eastern  section  of  the  state.  Both  as  to  flavor  and  juiciness 
this  grape  is  probably  unsurpassed,  but  its  shipping  qualities 
are  poor.  The  fruit  trees  were  mostly  hardy  seedlings. 
While  the  varieties  were  few,  there  were  some  very  good 
ones,  which  for  home  use  have  been  little  improved  upon. 
Of  apples,  there  were  the  "piney  woods  seedling,"  the 
"  horse  apple,"  the  "  matamuskeet,"  and  the  "  green  Jona- 
than;" of  peaches,  the  "red  June"  and  the  ''yellow 
press."  ^  These  were  all  favorites.  Neither  the  grape- 
vines nor  the  fruit  trees  received  much  attention  after  once 
being  set  out,  and  yet  they  seemed  to  thrive  well.  Not  a 
few  that  had  been  in  bearing  for  more  than  a  generation 
were  still  good  producers  in  1880. 

While  many  a  farmer  had  not  over  ten  or  twelve  trees, 
and  from  ten  to  twenty  square  yards  of  grape-vines,  there 
were  some  who  had  from  fifty  to  a  hundred  trees,  and  some 
who  had  from  one-  to  two-thousand  square  yards  of  vines. 
No  fruit  was  shipped  away.  A  few  peaches,  pears,  apples, 
and  grapes  were  hauled  to  the  near-by  towns,  and  a  con- 
siderable quantity  of  grapes  was  hauled  to  Norfolk.     There 

^  Local  names. 


67]  -   THE  CHIEF  FARM  PRODUCTS  IN  THE  EIGHTIES     ^y 

was  some  wine  made  from  the  grapes  and  some  brandy  from 
the  apples.  Both  of  these  beverages  were  largely  consumed 
in  the  immediate  localities  of  their  production. 

LIVE  STOCK  AND  LIVE-STOCK  PRODUCTS 

Free  Range. — In  1880  only  about  one-third  of  the  land 
area  of  Chowan  was  under  fence,  or  "  improved."  ^  The 
other  two-thirds  was  free  range,  that  is,  anybody's  stock 
was  at  liberty  to  graze  on  all  un fenced  land  without  let  or 
hindrance.  Whether  the  owner  of  stock  owned  thousands 
of  acres  of  unfenced  land,  or  owned  none  at  all,  made  no 
difference  in  the  privileges  accorded  his  stock.  Much  of 
the  free  range  was  most  excellent  for  cattle,  sheep,  and 
hogs,  and  yet  there  was  comparatively  little  stock  raised.* 
Except  a  few  hogs  and  some  barnyard  poultry,  many  farm- 
ers bred  no  stock  at  all. 

Mules  and  Horses. — The  Tenth  Census  does  not  report 
the  immature  mules  and  horses  separately  from  the  mature. 
Judging,  however,  from  the  figures  of  the  following  cen- 
suses,^ and  from  my  own  knowledge  of  general  conditions, 
I  think  it  a  liberal  estimate  to  place  the  annual  average  num- 
ber of  colts  foaled  as  one  to  every  thirty  or  forty  farms. 
The  probable  cause  of  the  lack  of  horse  breeding  was  the 
lack  of  pastures,  not  more  than  one  farm  in  twenty  having 
either  a  permanent  or  temporary  pasture  of  any  sort.  Gen- 
erally speaking,  where  colts  and  their  mothers  have  to  be  fed 
from  the  bam  entirely  there  is  little  or  no  profit  in  breeding 
horses.  But  why  the  lack  of  pastures  ?  Since  the  possibili- 
ties were  by  no  means  poor,  the  only  answer  I  can  suggest 
is  the  lack  of  knowledge  of  the  possibilities  for  pastures  and 
of  the  means  of  developing  them,  coupled  with  a  failure  to 
realize  their  value. 

1  Cf.  table  6,  p.  269.  2  Cf.  table  7,  p.  270. 

3  Ihid. 


68  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [68 

Sheep. — Like  the  horses,  the  sheep  bred  were  a  negligible 
quantity.  The  one  great  drawback  to  sheep-raising — that 
which  kept  it  from  being  a  highly  profitable  industry  to  the 
county  —  was  the  presence  of  so  many  good-for-nothing 
dogs.  In  1878  the  county  had  684  sheep,  and  768  dogs. 
During  the  year  these  dogs  destroyed  85  head  of  sheep, 
while  only  17  head  were  lost  from  sickness.^ 

Beef  Cattle.  For  every  head  of  cattle  reported  in  the 
Tenth  Census  (1880),  there  were  more  than  three  head  of 
people,  and  this  in  a  county  two-thirds  of  which  was  free 
range  and  much  of  which  of  such  quality  that  cattle  (except- 
ing the  few  that  were  milked)  did  not  even  need  to  be  win- 
tered. In  no  case  were  they  fed  any  at  all  (unless  milked) 
more  than  four  months  of  the  year,  and  then  usually  only  a 
very  small  amount  of  cheap  forage,  such  as  corn  shucks  and 
wheat  and  oat  straw.  The  Tenth  Census  makes  no  mention 
of  either  the  number  or  value  of  cattle  annually  sold  or 
slaughtered,  but  in  the  census  following,  the  number  given 
as  sold  "  living  and  slaughtered  "  is  135,  and  "  slaughtered 
for  home  consumption,"  45.^  Both  the  general  conditions 
and  the  total  number  of  cattle  reported  in  1880  being  prac- 
tically the  same  as  in  1890,  it  is  highly  probable  that  the 
number  of  cattle  sold  and  slaughtered  was  about  the  same. 
Of  those  sold  for  beef,  some  were  driven  to  Norfolk  (sixty 
or  more  miles  distant,  depending  upon  the  point  in  the 
county  from  which  they  started),  some  sold  in  Edenton, 
and  some  butchered  on  the  farm  and  peddled  out  among  the 
neighbors. 

Milk  Cows. — Nearly  all  the  cattle  of  the  country  were  the 
"  piney  woods,"  or  scrub  stock.  Not  until  the  census  of 
1890  was  there  any  effort  made  to  ascertain  the  quality  of 
the  stock.     At  this  time  the  census  enumerator  was  able  to 

'^  North  Carolina  Hand-book,  pp.  212-18,  passim, 
2  Cf.  table  9,  p.  272. 


69]      THE  CHIEF  FARM  PRODUCTS  IN  THE  EIGHTIES     69 

find  but  ten  thoroughbreds,  and  but  fifty  five  others  that 
were  as  much  as  one-half  pure  blood/  It  is  well  known 
that  the  scrub  stock  is  a  poor  producer,  both  of  beef  and  of 
dairy  products,  especially  the  latter. 

Not  only  was  the  quality  of  the  milk  cows  poor,  but  the 
number  was  small.  In  the  Tenth  and  the  Eleventh  Censuses 
there  are  only  three  divisions  of  cattle :  "  working  oxen," 
"  milch  cows  "  and  "  other  cattle."  ^  In  view  of  this  fact 
it  is  quite  likely  that  many  cows  used  for  breeding  purposes 
only,  were  reported  as  "  milch  cows,"  and  that  the  figures 
for  the  latter  are  therefore  too  large  But,  even  taking  the 
figures  as  given  for  1880,  there  were  only  10  milk  cows 
in  the  county  to  every  107  people.  The  production  of  milk 
and  butter  not  being  one  of  the  strong  points  of  this  native 
stock,  even  when  accorded  the  best  of  treatment,  under  the 
treatment  actually  received  little  could  be  expected;  and  in 
this  there  were  no  favorable  surprises. 

It  was  customary  to  shut  the  calves  up  in  small  en- 
closure or  else  allow  them  to  run  loose  in  the  fields,  while 
the  cows  were  forced  to  run  in  the  woods  and  rustle  their 
own  feed.  The  calves  were  never  taken  from  their  mothers 
and  raised  by  hand,  but  instead  were  turned  to  them  once 
every  day.  In  fact  the  time  allowed  the  cows  with  their 
young  was  the  one  inducement  to  them  to  come  home  and 
be  milked.  The  calf  was  allowed  to  suck  for  a  very  short 
time  just  before  the  cow  was  milked,  and  then  after  she 
was  milked  it  was  allowed  to  suck  her  dry.  Sometimes  one 
or  two  teats  would  be  left  unmilked  for  the  calf,  especially 
when  it  was  young,  or  in  an  enclosure  where  it  found  very 
little  to  eat.  During  the  first  month  or  six  weeks  the  calf 
was  allowed  to  stay  over  night  with  its  mother,  but  after 
then  its  mother  was  usually  milked  mornings,  and  it  was 

1  Page  300,  volumes  on  Agriculture,  Eleventh  Census. 
«  Cf.  table  7,  p.  270. 


70  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [70 

allowed  with  her  from  a  few  minutes  to  an  hour  or  two  only, 
immediately  after  the  milking.  As  a  usual  thing,  the  cows 
were  milked  only  once  a  day. 

If  the  cows  were  fed  any  at  all,  it  was  frequently  just 
enough  to  make  them  stand  while  being  milked — sometimes 
a  few  nubbins,  or  green  "  shoots."  ^  For  the  first  eight  or 
ten  weeks  they  came  up  mornings  regularly  and  early.  But 
as  their  calves  grew  older,  and  the  time  allowed  with  them 
was  cut  shorter,  mother-love  gradually  gave  way  to  other 
considerations,  and  the  home-comings  were  no  longer  either 
regular  or  early.  They  would  begin  by  remaining  away 
till  the  middle  of  the  morning,  then  till  noon.  Being  milked 
late  one  day,  probably  the  next  day  they  would  not  come  at 
all.  This  irregularity  made  bad  milk,  and  so  very  soon 
they  would  be  allowed  to  dry  up.  Less  than  ten  per  cent 
of  the  cows  were  milked  during  the  winter  months.  When 
allowed  to  dry  up  in  the  early  fall,  as  was  the  common 
custom,  if  fed  at  all,  the  feeding  did  not  start  till  December 
or  January,  and  stopped  about  the  middle  of  April  when  the 
grass  and  trees  began  to  put  out.  The  feeding  being  only 
barely  sufficient  to  tide  them  over  the  winter,  the  spring 
found  them  thin  and  weak. 

Most  of  the  calves  were  dropped  during  March  and  April. 
May  and  June  were  the  best  months  for  milk  and  butter, 
for  it  was  then  that  the  free  pasturage  of  the  woods  was  at 
its  best.  Probably  three- fourths,  or  even  more,  of  the  total 
annual  dairy  production  took  place  during  these  months. 
By  the  spring,  feed  in  the  barn  was  getting  low,  so  the  cows 
that  calved  early  were  fed  but  little,  and  the  calves  allowed 
most  of  the  milk.  Thus  the  dairy  product  before  May  was 
small.  By  August,  the  flow  of  milk  was  slackening  con- 
siderably, and  by  September  many  cows  were  no  longer 
milked. 

1  Forms  of  ears  of  corn  bearing  no  grain. 


^l]      THE  CHIEF  FARM  PRODUCTS  IN  THE  EIGHTIES     yi 

Dairy  Products. — Under  the  conditions  outlined,  the  dairy 
product  was  necessarily  small.  The  Tenth  Census  makes 
no  report  on  the  milk  production,  but  according  to  the  butter 
report,  the  county  produced  less  than  13  ounces  of  butter 
for  each  inhabitant  during  1879.  The  first  milk  report  was 
that  of  the  Eleventh  Census,  for  1889.  The  dairy  product 
in  that  year  was  under  23  quarts  of  milk  and  1 1  ounces  of 
butter  for  each  person  in  the  county.  The  milk  production 
per  cow  was  less  than  85  gallons  for  the  entire  year. 
Reckoning  120  days  as  the  average  milking  period  for  each 
cow,  the  daily  output  per  cow  was  well  under  3  quarts  for 
4  months  of  the  year,  and  nothing  during  the  other  eight.  ^ 
Many  a  cow  was  milked  that  gave  less  than  2  quarts  a  day. 

The  milk  and  butter  produced  was  largely  consumed  by 
the  immediate  producers.  The  few  cattle  sold  ^  brought 
their  owners,  on  an  average,  not  over  fifteen  or  eighteen  dol- 
lars a  head.  Thus  it  is  seen  that  cattle  made  only  a  very 
small  return  to  the  county,  either  financially  or  otherwise. 

Hogs. — Of  the  domestic  animals  on  farms,  hogs  were  not 
only  by  far  the  most  numerous  but  also  the  most  general. 
Probably  ninety  per  cent  of  all  farmers  (both  owners  and 
tenants)  raised  at  least  a  few.  The  county  more  than  raised 
its  meat,*  though  many  people  consumed  but  little.  The 
more  substantial  farmers,  especially  farm  owners,  usually 
butchered  from  eight  hundred  to  two  thousand  pounds,  and 
a  few  as  high  as  from  five-  to  ten-thousand  pounds. 

^  These  calculations  are  based  upon  the  census  data  found  in  tables 
7  and  9,  pp.  270,  270.  As  noted  above,  it  is  quite  likely  that  some 
mere  breeders  were  classed  as  "milch  cows."  This,  however,  is  prob- 
ably more  than  made  up  for  by  those  milked  more  than  four  months 
in  the  year. 

2  Cf.  supra,  p.  68. 

3  In  this  treatise  the  word  "  meat,"  tmless  otherwise  indicated,  refers 
to  hog  meat,  as  is  the  local  custom. 


72  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [72 

Except  on  special  occasions,  such  as  all-day  religious 
meetings,  when  some  of  the  families  participating  would 
kill  a  "  pig  "  that  had  been  put  up  and  fattened  for  the 
particular  affair,  practically  all  pork  was  killed  during  the 
winter  months.  More  than  ninety  per  cent  of  it  went  on 
the  rack  between  the  middle  of  December  and  the  last  ot 
January.  Some  farmers  would  occasionally  keep  a  few 
hogs,  if  they  were  fattening  well,  over  into  February. 
There  were  two  very  salient  reasons  for  killing  at  the  time 
specified.  In  the  first  place,  the  hogs  by  this  time  had  eaten 
up  what  was  intended  for  them.  In  the  second  place,  it  is 
hard  to  save  meat,  especially  large  joints,  unless  the  weather 
is  fairly  cool.  The  winters  in  Chowan  being  relatively  short, 
only  a  limited  amount  of  weather  suitable  for  butchering  was 
expected,  hence  everybody  prepared  to  butcher  when  this 
weather  came. 

Whether  destined  for  market  or  for  home  consumption, 
the  hogs  were  always  slaughtered  right  on  the  farm.  Some- 
times one  had  a  few  he  wanted  to  kill  either  earlier  or  later 
than  he  did  his  others,  and  so  would  have  two  hog-killings 
during  the  season,  but  the  majority  did  all  their  killing  in  one 
day.  Help  was  furnished  by  one's'  neighbors  without  re- 
muneration, except  what  they  ate  and  drank  and  the  few 
haslets  they  carried  home  with  them.  (It  was  customary 
for  each  of  those  who  helped  to  take  a  haslet  or  two  home 
with  him  if  he  cared  to.)  On  the  day  following  the  killing, 
the  meat  was  cut  out  and  salted  down  (except  that  which  was 
sold  right  off  the  rack),  the  "lard  dried  up,"  ^  and  the 
sausage  meat  chopped  up.^    This  work  required  about  one- 

1  The  rendering  of  the  trimmings  of  fat  from  the  entrails,  and  from 
the  meat  in  cutting  it  out,  was  known  as  "  drying  up  the  lard." 

2  Possibly  there  were  a  few  sausage  mills  in  the  county  then,  but  if 
so  they  were  not  in  general  use,  hence  most,  if  not  all,  of  the  sausage 
meat  was  chopped  up  with  a  knife. 


73]      THE  CHIEF  FARM  PRODUCTS  IN  THE  EIGHTIES     73 

third  as  much  help  as  did  the  killing.  In  certain  sections 
those  who  helped  in  this  work  would  be  given  some  spare 
ribs,  or  backbone,  to  take  home  with  them.  As  a  matter  of 
<;ourse,  in  asking  and  receiving  aid,  one  always  entailed 
upon  himself  the  obligation  to  give  aid  in  return  when 
called  upon.^ 

Hog  cholera  was  the  one  great  drawback  to  the  raising  of 
pork.  This  dread  disease  claimed  numerous  victims  almost 
every  year.  It  was  not  an  uncommon  thing  for  cholera  to 
break  out  in  a  neighborhood  and  destroy  from  50  to  75 
per  cent  of  all  hogs,  and  in  some  droves  make  a  clean 
sweep.  The  Eleventh  Census  is  the  first  and  only  one  thus 
far  to  make  any  report  by  counties  of  the  hog  mortality. 
According  to  it  there  occurred  among  the  hogs  in  the  county 
in  1889,  2,100  deaths,  a  number  more  than  37  per  cent  a3 
great  as  the  number  consumed.^  Whether  or  not  the  death 
rate  for  that  year  was  greater  than  the  average,  one  is 
unable  to  say  definitely.  The  fact,  however,  that,  of  the  last 
four,  this  is  the  only  census  which  reports  the  number  of 
hogs  as  smaller  than  the  number  of  people  at  the  time  of 
the  enumeration,  may  indicate  that  for  1889  the  hog  mor- 
tality was  above  normal.  At  any  rate,  it  is  a  well-known 
fact  that  the  annual  average  mortality  was  relatively  high, 
and  was  due  almost  entirely  to  the  one  disease — cholera. 
As  a  conservative  estimate,  I  should  say  that  one  year  with 
another  twenty  per  cent  as  many  died  as  were  slaughtered ; 
in  other  words,  one  died  for  every  five  killed.  The  loss 
of  one  out  of  every  six,  or  whatever  the  proportionate  loss 
was,  if  it  could  have  been  established  as  a  definite  tax,  would 
not  have  been  so  calamitous.  But  much  feed  was  raised 
for  the  express  purpose  of  fattening  hogs;  consequently, 
when  one  lost  all,  or  a  large  proportion  of  them,  a  good 

1  Cf.  infra,  p.  181  et  seq.  2  Calculations  made  from  table  9,  p.  272. 


74  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [74 

part  of  his  feed  was  also  lost.  Thus  there  was  a  double 
loss,  aside  from  the  demoralizing  effect  upon  the  industry 
caused  by  the  great  uncertainty  constantly  prevailing. 

If  cholera  could  have  been  stamped  out,  dressed  pork 
could  probably  have  been  produced  at  a  profit  for  something 
like  three  cents  a  pound.  For  ten  months  of  the  year  hogs 
secured  much  of  their  living  right  in  the  woods.  Besides 
such  feed  as  roots,  grasses,  bugs,  and  worms, — found  in  all 
parts  of  the  county — in  certain  parts  in  certain  years  there 
were  great  quantities  of  chinkapins,  acorns,  huckleberries, 
and  beech-  and  pine-mast.  Thus  it  was  that  in  some  years 
in  some  sections  hogs  would  be  in  "good  order"  (fair 
condition)  when  given  the  run  of  the  fields,  notwithstanding 
that  since  being  weaned  they  had  had  little  or  nothing  except 
what  they  themselves  had  foraged.  Many  people  fed  their 
hogs,  except  their  brood  sows  and  small  pigs,  scarcely  at 
all  until  they  were  turned  into  the  fields.  In  the  fall,  after 
crops  were  housed,  all  hogs  to  be  fattened  that  season  were 
put  into  the  fields  to  pick  them,  that  is,  to  eat  the  peas, 
potatoes,  and  whatever  else  they  could  find.  Some  killed 
their  pork  right  out  of  the  field,  but  the  majority  "  put  up  " 
(penned)  their  hogs  after  they  had  cleaned  the  fields,  and 
corned  them  for  a  time,  the  length  of  time  depending,  with- 
in certain  limits,  largely  upon  whether  or  not  it  was  thought 
they  were  making  sufficient  gains  to  leave  a  fair  margin 
after  deducting  the  value  of  the  corn  fed  to  them. 

Not  only  did  hogs  entail  comparatively  small  expense  in 
feeding,  but  they  also  demanded  very  little  attention.  The 
sows  pigged  in  the  woods,  making  their  own  choice  of  loca- 
tion for  the  purpose.  In  fact,  they  seemed  to  do  better 
when  at  large  than  when  enclosed.  If  the  weather  was  cold 
they  began  making  a  tremendous  bed  of  bushes,  leaves,  and 
straw  two  or  three  days  previous  to  the  prospective  litter. 

Under  existing  conditions  the  breeds  were  necessarily 


75]      THE  CHIEF  FARM  PRODUCTS  IN  THE  EIGHTIES     75 

those  that  could  largely  shift  for  themselves.  This,  how- 
ever, is  far  from  saying  that  only  poor  breeds  could  do  this. 
Now  and  then  some  good  blood  would  be  brought  in,  but 
since  everybody's  hogs  ran  in  the  woods  together,  no  one 
could  do  a  great  deal  toward  breeding  up  his  own  stock, 
beyond  the  selection  of  his  brood  sows.  Thus  it  was  largely 
a  case  of  the  stock  of  all  improving  together.  This  would 
have  been  all  right  had  not  the  ignorance,  selfishness,  and 
short-sightedness  of  some  prevented  them  from  cooperating 
in  the  general  betterment.  For  instance,  many  would  let 
their  scrub  males  run  till  they  were  a  year  or  more  old  be- 
fore castration.  By  and  large,  the  hogs  bred  tended  towards 
the  long-nosed,  heavy-shouldered,  big-bellied,  small-hammed 
type — the  type  which  produces  the  least  amount  of  the  most 
desirable  meat.  Being  scantily  fed,  their  growth  was  slow. 
Many  at  twelve  months  old  would  not  have  dressed  50 
pounds.  As  a  rule  they  did  not  seem  to  fatten  well  till 
they  were  a  year  or  two  old,  hence  those  butchered  would 
have  probably  averaged  a  year  and  a  half.  Even  at  this 
age  they  rarely  ever  dressed  as  much  as  200  pounds.  One 
that  dressed  250  pounds  was  a  "  big  hog." 

Poultry. — The  raising  of  poultry  was  well-nigh  uni- 
versal among  farm  owners  and  the  better-class  tenants. 
The  number  kept  by  any  one  family,  however,  was  seldom 
large,  it  being  very  rare  to  find  as  many  as  a  hundred 
chickens  attached  to  any  one  household,  and  chickens  con- 
stituted some  eighty  per  cent  or  more  of  all  poultry  raised 
in  the  county.^  Numerous  families  had  fewer  than  a 
dozen  head  of  grown  poultry.  For  the  rural  popu- 
lation as  a  whole,  there  were  on  June  i,  1880, 
only  196  head  of  poultry  (exclusive  of  spring  hatching) 
of    all    kinds    for    every    100   people.^      From    thirty    to 

1  Cf.  table  7,  p.  270. 

2  Calculations  based  on  U.  S.  Census  data  found  in  table  4,  p.  264, 
and  table  7,  p.  270. 


76  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [76 

forty  hens  was  the  usual  maximum  per  family.  It 
had  been  found  out  from  experience  that  this  number 
produced  about  as  many  eggs  (sometimes  even  more)  as  a 
larger  number  did.  The  reason  for  this  seeming  anomaly 
is  not  far  to  seek.  When  fed  at  all,  the  chickens  were  al- 
ways given  corn,  hence  had  to  forage  most  of  their  nitrogen- 
ous or  egg-producing  food,  and  in  many  cases  they  had  to 
forage  all  their  food.  Such  things  as  bugs,  worms  and 
kitchen  scraps  found  about  the  place,  amply  supplied  a  small 
number,  but  since  they  ranged  only  a  comparatively  short 
distance  from  where  they  roosted,  a  large  number  found 
these  sources  of  supply  quite  inadequate  to  their  needs. 

While  not  usually  keeping  many  laying  hens,  some  of  the 
more  industrious  housewives  (this  was  the  one  outdoor  in- 
dustry in  which  the  women  dominated)  raised  from  fifty 
to  two  hundred  spring  chickens  for  sale  annually. 
Nearly  all  who  kept  chickens  sold  a  few  young  ones 
in  the  spring  and  summer,  if  nothing  more  than  the 
roosters  among  those  hatched  for  layers.  In  the  fall  of 
the  year  some  of  the  old  hens  would  be  sold  off  to  make 
room  for  the  pullets  just  coming  in. 

Though  chickens  constituted  the  major  portion  of  the 
poultry,  there  were  also  some  turkeys,  ducks  and  geese. 
The  turkeys  were  raised  almost  entirely  for  market.  Dur- 
ing the  late  fall  and  winter  months  they  were  dressed  and 
carted  to  Norfolk.  Except  a  few  to  raise  from  the  follow- 
ing year,  the  entire  flock  was  killed  every  season.  Ducks, 
seemingly,  were  bred  because  some  people  fancied  them, 
rather  than  because  of  the  financial  return  they  made.  They 
were  poorer  layers  than  hens,  their  eggs  sold  for  the  same 
at  the  stores,^  and  when  the  ducks  themselves  were  put  on 

1  At  Easter  time  retailers  on  the  Norfolk  market  could  get  from  two 
to  four  cents  per  dozen  more  for  duck  eggs  than  for  hen  eggs,  but  the 
producer  seldom  knew  the  difference. 


77]      THE  CHIEF  FARM  PRODUCTS  IN  THE  EIGHTIES     77 

the  market  they  brought  no  more  than  the  hens.  Geese 
served  in  a  double  capacity — that  of  grass-killers,  and  that 
of  feather-producers — besides  selling  well  when  put  on  the 
market  dressed. 

The  first-named  service  of  the  goose,  that  of  killing  grass, 
was  of  no  mean  value  to  the  cotton  grower  when  crab-grass 
was  the  principal  grass,  as  it  was  on  many  farms.  This 
grass  was  considered  a  great  delicacy  by  the  goose  and  a 
great  plague  by  the  farmer.  A  flock  of  forty  or  fifty  geese 
was  probably  equal  to  one  hoe  hand  for  keeping  down  grass 
in  cotton  after  the  cotton  was  once  cut  to  a  stand,  provided 
they  were  put  in  on  time.  Geese  lay  early  in  the  spring, 
hence  could  be  set  and  hatched  off  in  time  for  the  goslings  to 
be  large  enough  to  do  good  work  soon  after  the  cotton  was 
ready  for  them  to  go  into  it.  In  the  very  act  of  killing  the 
grass  by  eating  it  off  they  thereby  obtained  most  of  their 
livelihood.  Since  they  were  near  maturity  by  the  time  cot- 
ton was  laid  by,  their  production  necessitated  but  small  ex- 
pense, and  this  was  much  more  than  made  up  for  by  the 
labor  they  saved.  In  the  fall  they  were  good  for  a  half- 
dollar  apiece,  or  they  could  be  kept  for  feathers. 

Practically  all  of  the  more  substantial  families  slept  on 
feather  beds,  except  during  a  few  months  in  summer,  and 
some  even  all  the  year  round.  A  newly-married  couple 
usually  started  housekeeping  with  one  or  two  beds,  either 
given  them  by  their  parents  or  bought  by  themselves,  and 
as  the  family  grew,  raised  feathers  for  other  beds.  The 
best  feathers,  in  fact  nearly  all  feathers  ^  used,  were  taken 
from  geese  and  ducks.  Since  picking  seems  to  go  so  hard 
with  ducks,  and  since  they  are  comparatively  small  and  re- 
feather  comparatively  slowly,  only  a  few  were  ever  picked, 
hence  geese  were  the  main  source  of  supply. 

1  Some  few  people,  when  they  dressed  chickens,  saved  the  feathers, 
but  they  were  always  of  very  poor  quality,  and  were  never  used  except 
by  the  poorer  classes. 


78  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [yg 

By  far  the  greater  portion  of  all  poultry  and  eggs  found 
its  way  to  some  outside  market,  principally  Norfolk.  Less 
than  twenty  per  cent  of  either  was  consumed  by  the  pro- 
ducers.^ Most  people  had  them  to  eat  only  at  rare  inter- 
vals. At  the  big,  all-day  church  meetings,^  with  dinner  on 
the  grounds,  it  was  customary  to  have  chicken,  also  when 
company  was  expected  for  a  Sunday  dinner,  usually  a 
chicken  was  cooked.  As  for  eggs,  once  in  a  great  while 
they  were  served  for  Sunday  morning  breakfast,  or  when 
visitors  were  present.  Also,  when  one  was  sick  he  was 
generally  allowed  to  have  what  eggs  he  wanted;  this  was 
one  of  the  few  pleasant  things  about  being  sick.  But  the 
times  when  either  eggs  or  poultry  graced  the  family  bill  of 
fare,  except  on  the  special  occasions  mentioned,  were  few 
and  far  between  for  the  vast  majority.^ 

During  six  or  seven  months  of  the  year  there  was  neither 
much  to  sell,  nor  much  to  barter  for  the  little  necessaries 
and  luxuries  usually  obtained  from  the  country  stores.  For 
many,  poultry  and  eggs  constituted  the  principal  articles 
marketed  from  the  last  of  February  till  the  middle  of  Sep- 
tember, when  the  fall  crops  began  to  come  in.  They  were 
either  picked  up  by  the  carters  (who,  at  certain  seasons  of 
the  year,  scoured  the  country  buying  anything  and  every- 
thing that  was  salable  on  the  Norfolk  market),*  or  toted  ofif 
to  the  stores  and  traded  for  such  things  as  kerosene,  coffee, 
sugar,  molasses,  tobacco,  and  snuff.  And  this  was  done  in 
spite  of  the  fact  that  the  prices  received  were  low.  Grown 
ducks  and  chickens  brought  from  twenty  to  thirty  cents  a 
head,  geese  from  forty  to  fifty  cents,  and  turkeys  from 
eighty  cents  to  a  dollar.     For  months  at  a  time — the  time 

^  My  own  estimate,  based  upon  a  general  knowledge  of  conditions. 
2  Cf.  infra,  p.  205.  ^  cf^  infra,  p.  223. 

*  Cf.  infra,  p.  135  et  seq. 


yg-j      THE  CHIEF  FARM  PRODUCTS  IN  THE  EIGHTIES     yg 

when  hens  were  doing  their  biggest  laying — eggs  sold  at  the 
country  store  for  eight  and  ten  cents  a  dozen,  and  often 
went  as  low  as  six  cents. 

Cash  Handled  by  the  Farmers. — From  the  facts  given 
in  this  and  the  preceding  chapter  it  is  seen  that  the  vast  ma- 
jority of  farmers  handled  very  little  money.  In  fact  many 
a  fairly  substantial  farmer  with  a  good-sized  family,  handled 
less  than  a  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  a  year.  For  the  simple 
life  they  were  leading,  however,  they  did  not  need  much 
money.  They  were  producing  most  of  what  they  con- 
sumed, whether  it  was  little  or  much,  and  consuming  most 
of  what  they  produced.  If  they  hired  labor,  much  of  it 
was  paid  in  supplies,  so  they  got  along  quite  well  with  very 
little  actual  cash. 


CHAPTER  V 

Agriculture,  Fruit  Culture,  Animal  Husbandry  and 
Poultry  Raising  in  191 5 

agriculture 

Having  described  somewhat  fully  the  general  conditions 
of  agriculture  and  its  allied  industries  in  the  eighties,  it  will 
suffice  to  sketch  rather  briefly  the  changes  which  have  since 
occurred  in  the  industry.  These  changes  have  been  largely 
along  three  lines — principles  and  methods,  variety  of  crops, 
and  production. 

Changes  in  Methods  and  Principles. — In  1880  it  could 
hardly  be  said  that  many  people  of  Chowan  had  any  prin- 
ciples of  farming  other  than  to  imitate  their  fathers  and 
grandfathers.  But  we  now  come  to  a  period  in  which  we 
find  a  few  people  who  want  to  understand  the  underlying 
causes  of  things — the  whys  and  wherefores.  For  the  vast 
majority,  however,  it  is  still  enough  for  them  if  they  know 
that  a  certain  action  is  likely  to  produce  a  certain  result. 
Of  course,  the  voluntarily  blind — those  who  refuse  to  see 
the  results  obtained  by  the  new  methods — are  still  present. 

What  are  the  changes  in  method  ?  In  the  first  place  some 
farmers  are  actually  breaking  up  their  land,  instead  of 
merely  scratching  the  surface.^  A  few  break  up  their  land 
with  two-horse  teams.  Not  only  is  the  ground  plowed 
deeper,  but  many  put  their  seed-beds  into  much  better  con- 
dition than  formerly.  Discs  and  various  types  of  special 
harrows  are  now  freely  used.     Nearly  every  one  is  doing  all 

1  Cf.  supra,  pp.  52,  61-62. 
80  [80 


8i]  AGRICULTURE,  FRUIT  CULTURE  8l 

his  planting,  except  the  setting-out  of  sweet  potato  sprouts, 
with  special  planters.  A  beginning  has  been  made  in  scien- 
tific crop-rotation,  that  is,  a  rotation  which  returns  some- 
thing to  the  soil  as  well  as  takes  something  away.  Now 
and  then  a  farmer  is  found  who  is  actually  radical  enough  to 
plow  in  a  crop  of  clover  or  peas.  Some  few  act  as  if  they 
had  learned  that  they  cannot  take  more  off  their  land  than 
they  put  on  it.  without  making  it  poorer  to  just  that  extent. 
While  there  may  not  be  much  more  manure  per  capita  made 
on  the  farm  than  formerly,  quite  a  few  have  discontinued 
the  practice  of  burning  all  the  vegetation  off  their  land  in 
the  spring  of  the  year,  and  the  great  majority  are  using 
some  commercial  fertilizer.  According  to  the  1910  census 
the  expenditure  for  commercial  fertilizer  per  acre  of  im- 
proved land  in  1909  was  13.5  times  what  it  was  in  1879, 
just  three  decades  previous.^  Most  people  have  also  de- 
cided that  they  can  spend  their  time  to  better  advantage  than 
in  hauling  common  dirt  from  the  woods  into  their  fields. 

One  of  the  biggest  changes  is  in  the  actual  working  of 
the  crops.  They  are  now  much  more  properly  worked,  and 
with  far  less  human  labor  than  in  the  eighties.  Harrows, 
cultivators,  weeders,  combination  plows,  and  other  special 
machines,  some  of  which  work  a  row  or  more  at  a  time 
(while  at  the  same  time  permitting  the  operators  to  ride  in- 
stead of  trudging  along  behind),  have,  by  many,  been 
largely  substituted  for  the  turn-plow  and  weed  hoe.  Many 
farmers  have  told  me  that  while  formerly  it  required  from 
two  to  three  hoe  hands  to  follow  one  plow,  now  one  can 
follow  from  two  to  three  plows.  The  up-to-the-minute 
farmer  no  longer  waits  for  his  crop  to  become  covered  with 
grass  before  working  it,  but  instead,  often  begins  before  it 
comes  up  and  keeps  right  on  as  long  as  he  can  get  into  it 

1  Cf.  table  12,  p.  275. 


82  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [82 

without  injuring  it.  When  following  this  method,  there  is 
little  hoe  work  to  be  done,  except  in  case  of  a  very  wet 
season.  In  traveling  through  the  county,  I  have  observed 
that,  by  and  large,  the  greatest  amount  of  machinery  is 
used  and  the  least  amount  of  hoe  work  done  on  the  farms  of 
the  white  farmers  who  are  cultivating  their  own  land  and 
largely  with  their  own,  rather  than  with  a  hired,  force.  It 
seems  that  neither  the  negro  tenants  nor  the  negro  laborers, 
as  a  rule,  handle  the  more  complex  farm  machinery  to  much 
advantage. 

In  the  housing  of  crops,  the  chief  advance  has  been  made 
in  the  picking  of  peanuts.  This  is  all  done  now,  and  satis- 
factorily so,  by  machinery,  while  until  twelve  or  fifteen 
years  ago  it  was  all  done  by  hand.  A  good  hand-picker 
working  steadily  can  pick  about  four  bushels  a  day.  A 
machine  picker  handled  by  two  men  ^  can  pick  four  hundred 
bushels,  or  more,  a  day.  Had  it  not  been  for  the  invention 
of  a  successful  picker  the  increase  in  the  production  of 
peanuts  would  have  had  to  stop  long  before  now,  because 
of  the  inability  to  get  them  picked  off.  Incidentally,  the 
cost  of  picking  has  been  cut  down  to  from  a  third  to  a 
fourth  of  what  it  would  otherwise  be.  There  have  been 
some  thrashers  for  cowpeas,  but  thus  far  they  have  not 
been  very  successful.     The  soy-bean  thrasher,  however,  is 

1  As  a  usual  thing  five  or  six  men  work  around  a  peanut-picker,  but 
the  extra  men  are  not  engaged  in  the  actual  picking.  They  hand  the 
peanuts  up  to  the  picker,  place  the  sacks,  take  them  away  when  full 
and  sew  them  up,  and  take  away  the  vines — all  of  which  work  had 
to  be  done  just  the  same  when  the  nuts  were  picked  by  hand.  In  fact, 
for  the  same  amount  of  nuts,  it  requires  far  more  extra  time  when 
picking  by  hand  than  when  picking  by  machine,  and  for  two  reasons: 
in  the  first  place,  in  picking  by  hand  the  work  is  drawn  out  over  a 
much  longer  time,  requiring  the  attention  of  one  or  more  persons 
(besides  the  pickers)  at  various  intervals;  second,  instead  of  having 
one  person  to  deal  with,  there  are  several,  whose  work  must  be  measured 
up,  usually  every  day,  if  there  are  many  pickers. 


83]  AGRICULTURE,  FRUIT  CULTURE  83 

a  success,  having  attained  to  a  fair  degree  of  perfection 
within  the  past  four  or  five  years.  Only  a  few  peas  are 
raised  for  market,  and  these  are  mostly  picked  and  flailed 
by  hand  with  a  hoop-pole.  Cotton  must  still  be  picked  by 
hand,  a  fact  which  greatly  curtails  its  production.  The 
capacity  for  picking,  however,  seems  to  have  increased  from 
fifty  to  one  hundred  per  cent  during  the  past  thirty  years. 
This  is  probably  due  to  two  causes:  first,  an  actual  increase 
in  capacity  for  picking ;  second,  a  production  of  better  cotton, 
making  it  possible  for  one  of  former  capacity  to  pick  more. 
Many  now  pick  from  two  to  three  hundred  pounds  a  day  in 
the  early  part  of  the  season,  while  in  the  eighties  compara- 
tively few  picked  more  than  a  hundred  pounds  a  day. 

Some  idea  of  the  degree  of  change  from  the  antiquated 
methods  of  the  eighties  to  the  more  modern  methods  of  the 
present  may  be  gained  from  the  fact  that  in  1880  the  average 
value  of  farm  implements  and  machinery  per  acre  of  improved 
land  was  64.5  cents,  while  in  19 10  it  was  $2.75 — more  than 
a  quadruple  increase.  What  is  most  significant  is  that  more 
than  75  per  cent  of  this  total  increase  occurred  during  the 
last  decade.^  From  my  own  observations,  I  am  confident 
that  the  next  census  will  show  the  present  decade  to  have 
made  an  even  greater  increase  in  the  value  of  farm  ma- 
chinery used  than  did  the  previous  decade.  These  facts 
would  seem  to  indicate  that  the  Chowan  farmers  are  only 
just  beginning  to  wake  up. 

Other  facts  which  indicate  the  degree  of  improvement  in 
cultivation,  are  the  change  in  the  quality  of  the  "  stand- 
ard work  animal,"  and  the  increase  in  their  number  in  pro- 
portion to  the  improved  land  area.  In  1880  more  than  14 
per  cent  of  the  work  animals  on  the  farm  were  oxen.^    The 

1  These  calculations  are  made  from  table  6,  p.  269. 
'  For  the  data  and  calculations  of  this  and  the  previous  paragraph 
cf.  table  II  and  footnotes  to  same,  p.  274. 


84  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [84 

service  of  the  ox,  however,  in  the  capacity  of  a  farm  animal 
is  now  practically  a  thing  of  the  past.  In  19 14,  during 
more  than  a  six  months'  stay  in  the  county  traveling  back 
and  forth  all  over  it,  I  saw  but  one  ox  being  plowed,  and 
learned  of  only  one  other.  Possibly  there  were  two  or  three 
more,  but  the  few  work-oxen  now  in  the  county  (in  191  o 
estimated  at  20)  are  used  mostly  for  hauling,  either  on  the 
farm,  or  in  the  log  woods. 

Not  only  has  the  efficiency  of  the  "standard  work  animal" 
been  increased  by  the  ox  having  been  practically  dropped  out, 
but  also  by  the  mules  and  horses  having  been  considerably 
improved.  They  are  larger  now  than  formerly,  and  on  the 
whole  much  better  fed.  Hand  in  hand  with  this  increasing 
efficiency  of  the  "  standard  work  animal,"  has  gone  the 
cutting  down  of  the  number  of  acres  he  has  to  work.  From 
1880  to  191  o,  the  average  number  of  improved  acres  per 
horse  dropped  from  34  to  22.3 — a  decrease  of  34.4  per  cent 
in  the  short  space  of  30  years.  Furthermore,  in  1880  the 
work  animals  had  to  do  much  more  work  that  was  not 
strictly  agricultural  than  they  have  to  do  now.  Then,  most 
of  the  cotton  raised  was  ginned  by  horse  power,  a  majority 
of  the  seines  were  hauled  by  horses,  much  of  the  produce 
marketed  was  carted  from  twelve  to  sixty  miles,  and  the 
traveling  was  done  largely  with  horses.  At  present,  all 
cotton  is  ginned  by  steam,  there  are  no  more  seines  pulled, 
most  farmers  are  near  some  railroad  station,  making  it  no 
longer  necessary  to  cart  produce  very  far,  and  all  traveling 
of  more  than  a  few  miles  is  done  either  by  rail  or  by  auto- 
mobile. Less  than  ten  per  cent  of  the  produce  now  has  to 
be  carried  more  than  five  miles,  and  the  larger  part  of  it 
less  than  three.  As  for  traveling,  the  horse  is  now  seldom 
driven  so  far  from  home  but  that  the  return  trip  can  be 
made  the  same  day,  and  many  use  the  automobile  almost 
entirely. 


8^]  AGRICULTURE,  FRUIT  CULTURE  85 

Variety  of  Crops. — When  we  compare  the  variety  of 
crops  grown  in  1880  with  those  grown  in  1910  we  note  two 
radical  changes.  Wheat,  a  crop  ranking  in  average 
fairly  close  to  oats  and  sweet  potatoes,  which  held 
third  and  fourth  place  respectively,  has  dropped  out 
entirely;  the  peanut  crop  which  was  so  insignificant 
lin  1879  that  the  Tenth  Census  took  no  account  of 
it,  has  increased  in  acreage  to  within  a  few  acres 
of  cotton,  and  in  market  value,  probably  has  a  slight  lead/ 
In  acreage,  cotton  and  Irish  potatoes  have  remained  about 
the  same,  while  corn,  oats,  peas,  and  forage  have  each  actu- 
ally decreased.  The  increase  of  the  sweet-potato  acreage 
has  just  about  kept  pace  with  the  increase  in  population. 

A  new  crop — the  soy-bean — has  been  receiving  consider- 
able attention  during  the  past  four  or  five  years.  In  view 
of  the  following  facts — that  it  will  produce  something  on 
almost  any  of  the  land,  that  it  yields  a  crop  while  at  the 
same  time  improving  the  land,  that  it  is  easily  cultivated, 
that  it  is  one  of  the  best  and  cheapest  hog-feeds  that  can 
be  grown  here,  that  there  is  a  good  market  for  the  bean, 
that  there  is  already  in  use  a  fairly  satisfactory  machine 
for  threshing  out  the  bean,  making  the  cost  of  gathering 
from  a  third  to  a  fourth  of  what  it  would  be  by  hand — in 
view  of  these  facts,  the  soy-bean  is  destined  to  attain  a  high 
degree  of  importance  in  the  very  near  future. 

Production  per  Acre. — Turning  to  production  per  acre,  if 
the  census  figures  for  1879  be  compared  with  those  for  1909 
it  will  be  seen  that  they  register  very  little  change  in  pro- 
ductivity per  acre  for  the  three  crops — corn,  cotton  and 
sweet  potatoes — which  were  the  most  important  in  both 
periods.  The  facts  in  the  case,  however,  seem  to  justify  a 
very  different  conclusion.     I  personally  have  interviewed 

^  Since  the  rise  in  cotton  prices  during  the  present,  European  war, 
the  market  value  of  the  cotton  crop  has  again  taken  first  place. 


86  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [86 

a  number  of  the  most  successful  farmers  all  over  the  county 
and  they  tell  me  that  they  are  now  raising  from  two  to  three 
times  the  amount  of  produce  per  acre  they  were  raising 
thirty-five  years  ago.  My  own  observations,  going  back  some 
twenty-five  years,  are  in  strict  accord  with  their  testimonies. 

Of  course,  there  are  some  farmers  who  are  producing 
no  more  per  acre  now  than  they  were  in  the  early  eighties, 
but  these  are  in  the  minority.  Many  farmers  who  were 
then  making  from  eight  to  fifteen  bushels  of  corn  per  acre 
are  now  making  from  twenty  to  thirty  bushels.  Several 
men  in  the  county  have  produced  well  over  a  hundred  bushels 
per  acre.  In  19 14,  I  myself  stood  in  a  piece  of  corn  which 
measured  out  137.5  bushels  per  acre.  Thirty-five  years  ago 
few  men  in  the  county  would  have  believed  that  an  acre 
coud  be  made  to  produce  so  much.  With  cotton  it  is  the 
same  story  over  again.  In  the  eighties  from  a  half  to  three- 
quarters  of  a  bale  was  considered  good  cotton.  The  aver- 
age for  the  county,  according  to  the  Tenth  Census  (1880), 
was  only  166  pounds  of  lint — a  third  of  a  bale  (500  pounds) 
per  acre.  Many  acres  fell  far  short  of  this  amount. 
During  the  last  five  or  six  years  not  a  few  farmers 
have  produced  from  a  bale  to  a  bale  and  a  half  per  acre 
for  their  entire  crop. 

Not  only  does  the  testimony  of  the  farmers  contradict 
the  census  reports  in  this  particular,  but  the  reports  them- 
selves ofifer  additional  proof  of  the  discrepancy.  From 
1880  to  19 10,  the  acreage  of  improved  land  decreased  more 
than  6  per  cent,^  while  the  amount  spent  for  commercial 
fertilizer  in  1910  was  12.6  times  the  amount  spent  in  1880,* 
and  the  value  of  farm  machinery  in  1910  was  practically 
four  times  what  it  was  three  decades  before.*     Why  this 

1  Calculations  based  on  table  6,  p.  269. 

^  Cf.  table  12,  p.  275. 

^  Calculations  based  on  table  6,  p.  269. 


Sy-j  AGRICULTURE,  FRUIT  CULTURE  87 

tremendous  increase  in  the  use  of  commercial  fertilizers  if 
they  produced  no  results?  The  principal  manure  made  on 
the  farm  was  (and  continues  to  be)  that  from  work  animals, 
which  from  1880  to  19 10  increased  some  forty  per  cent  in 
number/  Since  the  value  of  manure  is  being  more  and 
more  realized  it  is  most  probable  that  the  increase  in  "  stable 
manure  "  was  at  least  as  great  (most  probably  greater)  as 
the  increase  in  the  number  of  work  animals,  which  are  its 
source.  Does  any  one  conversant  with  the  facts  suppose 
that  all  this  extra  amount  of  manure,  the  far  better  tilth 
that  now  prevails,  and  the  beginning  made  in  the  planting 
of  leguminous  crops  for  building  up  the  soil,^  are  necessary 
to  keep  the  land  up  to  the  low  fertility  of  the  eighties? 
Again,  by  far  the  greater  part  of  the  annual  income  of  the 
farmer  is  from  the  field  crops.  Orchard  products  have 
decreased  both  in  bulk  and  in  value  owing  in  part  to  the 
State's  having  "gone  dry,"  and  in  part  to  the  damage 
done  in  recent  years  by  the  coddling  moth  and  other  fruit 
pests.  Population  increased  more  than  43  per  cent  ^  from 
1880  to  1 9 10.  With  this  augmentation  in  the  number 
of  mouths  to  feed,  with  a  somewhat  smaller  fish- 
catch,*  and  with  the  live  stock  production  ^  remaining 
about  the  same,  if  the  soil  productivity  has  not  in- 
creased, then  what  has  been  the  source  of  the  phe- 
nomenal increase  in  economic  welfare  observable  on  all 
sides  ?  ®  Surely  not  a  few  thousand  dollars  worth  of 
vegetables  sold,  nor  the  small  manufacturing  interests  which 
furnish  employment  for  less  than  600  people  at  any  season 
of  the  year,  and  part  of  the  time  for  even  a  much  smaller 
number.^     Again,  if  land  productivity  has  not  increased, 

1  Calculations  based  on  table  11,  p.  274.  2  cf.  supra,  pp.  80  et  seq, 

3  Calculated  from  table  4,  p.  264.  *  Cf.  table  14,  p.  279. 

» Cf.  table  7,  p.  270.  e  Cf.  infra,  ch.  xx.              ; 

^  Estimated.    Cf.  infra,  pp.  117-118.  t 


88  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [gg 

why  did  land  more  than  treble  in  value  from  1900  to  1910?  * 
It  was  certainly  due  to  no  artificial  boom,  to  no  land  adver- 
tising, to  no  land  speculation.  Produce  prices  rose  to  some 
extent,  but  nothing  to  compare  with  the  rise  in  the  price  of 
land.  Believing  that  the  foregoing  facts  amply  sustain  my 
contention,  I  shall  here  rest  the  case. 

From  agriculture  in  its  more  narrow  sense,  let  us  turn  to 
fruit  culture,  animal  husbandry,  and  poultry  raising,  which, 
in  reality,  are  only  other  branches  of  the  general  subject  of 
agriculture.  This  is  especially  true  when  carried  on  as  here 
in  Chowan. 

FRUIT  CULTURE 

Orchard  products  have  decreased  in  bulk,  quality,  and 
value.  Very  little  fruit,  even  of  medium  quality  (except 
grapes)  can  now  be  raised  without  spraying.  And  since 
no  one  sprays,  the  result  is  that  (exclusive  of  grapes)  many 
a  fair-sized  orchard  does  not  annually  produce  a  single 
bushel  of  non-defective  fruit.  Aside  from  grapes,  the 
county  is  not  even  supplying  itself  with  fruit.  Much  of 
that  consumed  in  Edenton,  even  during  mid-season,  is  now 
shipped  in  from  the  outside.  Large  quantities  of  good- 
qualitied  apples  and  peaches  could  be  raised  here  if  only  a 
little  care  were  taken  with  the  trees,  but  the  time  has  passed 
when  all  one  has  to  do  is  to  plant  the  tree,  and  thereafter 
gather  the  fruit. 

ANIMAL  HUSBANDRY 

The  general  conditions  regarding  the  breeding  of  live 
stock  and  poultry  and  the  handling  of  their  products,  for 
the  majority  of  the  people,  have  changed  but  little.  The 
free  range  still  exists,  though  for  hogs  it  is  far  inferior  to 
what  it  was  in  former  days,  due  to  the  fact  that  most  of  the 

1  Cf.  table  6,  p.  269. 


89]  AGRICULTURE,  FRUIT  CULTURE  89 

mast-bearing  trees  have  been  cut.  The  breeds  of  hogs  and 
cattle  are  still  largely  scrub,  though  the  strains  of  good  blood 
intermingled  are  on  the  increase. 

The  horses,  mules,  and  sheep  bred,  continue  to  be  a  negli- 
gible quantity.^ 

The  number  of  cattle  has  actually  decreased.  And  while 
there  are  probably  a  few  more  good-blooded  milk  cows,  the 
increase  in  the  number  was  not  sufficient  in  1909  to  show  in 
the  milk  and  butter  report  of  that  year.* 

Hogs  have  increased  in  number,  but  the  increase  has 
failed  by  more  than  eight  per  cent  ^  to  keep  pace  with  the 
increase  in  population.  It  should  be  noted,  however,  that 
the  retardation  of  increase  in  hogs,  as  compared  to  increase 
in  population,  is  more  apparent  than  real.  At  the  time  of 
the  Thirteenth  Census  (1910),  the  average  age  of  hogs 
when  slaughtered  was  three  or  four  months  less*  than  it 
was  at  the  time  of  the  Tenth  Census  (1880),  which  means 
that  a  smaller  proportion  of  hogs  are  now  kept  over  from 
one  season  to  the  next  than  formerly.  A  larger  per  cent  of 
those  pigged  in  1909  were  killed  the  following  season,  than 
of  those  pigged  in  1879,  which,  in  turn,  lessened  the  number 
to  be  enumerated  the  following  year.  Of  course,  the  true 
test  of  the  relative  increase  or  decrease  of  the  hog  product 
is  not  the  number  of  hogs  on  hand  at  any  one  time,  but 
rather  the  annual  output  of  such  products  as  lard,  pork,  and 
bacon.  If  this  item  were  given  in  the  census  reports  I  am 
inclined  to  think  that  it  would  show  an  acceleration  of  in- 
crease, in  comparison  to  population  increase,  instead  of  a 
retardation  . 

1  Cf.  table  7,  p.  270. 

2  Cf.  table  9,  p.  272. 

3  Calculations  made  from  data  of  table  4,  p.  264,  and  table  7,  p.  270. 
•*  My  own  estimate. 


go  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [go 

The  cutting  down  of  the  age  of  hogs  slaughtered  has  been 
brought  about  by  two  factors — better  breeding  and  better 
feeding.  Many  farmers  have  improved  their  stock  of  hogs 
to  the  point  where  it  is  no  longer  necessary  for  them  to  be- 
come a  year  or  two  old  before  they  will  fatten.  The  ap- 
proach to  the  balanced  ration,  however,  has  doubtless  had 
far  more  to  do  with  this  than  has  the  breeding.  The  more 
intelligent  farmers  now  know  that  the  growing  animal  needs 
a  comparatively  large  amount  of  nitrogen-bearing  food,  or 
legumes.  A  great  many  more  have  learned  by  sheer  experi- 
ence that  young  hogs  do  far  better  when  allowed  to  run  on 
either  peas  or  peanuts  while  eating  potatoes,  than  if  fed  on 
potatoes  only.  With  the  spread  of  the  cultivation  of  pea- 
nuts, the  hogs,  since  they  have  always  had  the  run  of  the 
field  after  crops  are  housed,  came  into  a  source  of  especially 
good  muscle-building  food  by  force  of  circumstance,  rather 
than  by  any  premeditation  on  the  part  of  the  farmer.  Also, 
the  recently  introduced  soy-bean  is  now  being  planted  to 
some  extent  for  hogs,  and  is  proving  to  be  a  very  high- 
grade,  as  well  as  a  cheap  feed. 

POULTRY 

In  numbers,  poultry  ^  has  remained  about  the  same.  The 
egg  production,  however,  was  nearly  two  and  three-quarter 
times  as  great  ^  in  1909  as  it  was  in  1879.  This  increase 
doubtless  was  due  to  the  introduction  of  better-laying  breeds 
and  to  some  approach  to  scientific  feeding.  Many  people 
no  longer  feed  their  chickens  on  corn  alone. 

1  In  table  7  the  number  for  1910  is  nearly  double  that  for  1880,  but 
the  former  is  for  "  poultry  of  all  kinds,"  while  the  latter  is  "  exclusive 
of  spring  hatching,"  which  I  estimate  to  be  at  least  equal  in  number  to 
the  mature  poultry. 

2  There  was  an  increase  during  three  decades  of  172  per  cent.  Cal- 
culations from  table  9,  p.  272. 


CHAPTER  VI 

Fishing  in  the  Eighties 

relative  significance  of  fishing 

From  the  standpoint  of  the  labor  and  capital  employed^ 
there  was  in  1880  no  industry  that  could  claim  to  rank 
second,  or  even  third,  to  agriculture.  Fishing  was  next  in 
importance,  but,  according  to  the  best  estimates  from  the 
known  facts,  only  about  four  per  cent  of  the  taxable 
property  values  in  the  county  was  given  over  entirely 
to  this  industry/  There  was,  however,  in  addition 
to  this  specialized  capital,  a  certain  amount  reckoned 
as  agricultural,  which  was  devoted  to  seine-fishing 
during  the  season — roughly  speaking,  from  the  ist  of 
April  to  the  loth  of  May  (about  six  weeks)  on  the 
river,    and    from    the    loth    of    March    to    the    15th    of 

^  Cf.  table  13,  p.  276.  In  1880  the  fishing  equipment  was  not  re- 
corded separately  from  other  personal  property,  but  in  recent  years 
this  has  been  done.  In  1914  all  property  of  Chowan  county  was 
listed  at  $3»709.255,  while  the  fishing  properties  alone  were  listed  at 
%29,Z2>7  (figures  furnished  by  the  county  registrar  of  deeds  direct  from 
the  tax  books),  less  than  one  per  cent  of  the  total.  It  will  be  observed 
(table  13)  that  the  Hst  value  of  the  fishing  apparatus  is  less  than  one- 
third  (30.3  per  cent)  of  the  estimated  market  value  ($96,838).  In  1880 
the  taxed  property  values  (exclusive  of  solvent  credits)  of  the  county 
amounted  to  $750,648.  (North  Carolina  Executive  and  Legislative  Docu- 
ments, Session  1881,  Raleigh,  N.  C,  Document  No.  4.)  Assuming  that  all 
property  in  1914  was  Hsted  at  the  same  per  cent  of  its  market  value 
as  were  the  fishing  properties,  and  assuming  that  the  same  percentage 
held  for  1880  as  for  1914,  the  market  value  of  all  property  in  1880  was 
$2,478,204.  On  these  assumptions  the  estimated  market  value  of  the 
fishing  properties  for  1880  ($102,700)  was  4.14  per  cept  of  the  value  of 
all  property  in  the  county. 

91]  91 


g2  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [92 

May  (about  nine  weeks)  on  the  sound.  Under  the  latter 
class  of  capital  were  the  mules  and  horses  used  in  pulling 
in  the  seines,  where  this  was  done  by  horse  power.  The 
labor,  too,  employed  in  fishing  was  labor  which  at  other 
seasons  of  the  year  was  engaged  chiefly  in  farming;  but 
even  if  the  time  of  the  horses,  mules,  and  men  occupied  in 
fishing  should  be  capitalized  and  the  amount  added  to  the 
specialized  capital  of  this  activity,  the  aggregate  would  still 
be  comparatively  small. 

IMPORTANCE  OF  DIFFERENT  VARITIES  OF  APPARATUS 

At  the  time  when  this  account  begins,  gill-nets,  pound- 
nets,  hand  seines,  and  power  seines — both  horse  and  steam 
— were  all  being  operated.  Of  the  first  there  were  com- 
paratively few  in  use,  and  these  were  the  short,  stake-net 
variety  set  principally  for  shad.  Some  were  set  for  herring, 
but  the  herring  caught  this  way  were  a  negligible  quantity. 
Pound-nets  had  recently  been  introduced  (1869)  and  their 
possibilities  were  fast  being  realized,  though  seining  was 
still  the  all-important  method — probably  responsible  for 
eighty -five  per  cent  of  the  total  fish-catch. 

POUND-NETS 

Advantages  Over  Seines. — The  pound-net  has  three  big 
advantages  over  the  power  seine,  its  only  rival  in  herring 
fishing.  In  the  first  place,  a  much  smaller  amount  of  labor 
is  required  to  beach  a  given  quantity  of  fish.  Secondly,  the 
labor  force  can,  in  a  large  degree,  be  regulated  according  to 
the  size  of  the  catch,  which  fact  makes  it  unnecessary  to  keep 
numerous  hands  on  the  pay-roll  for  several  weeks  before  the 
fish  begin  to  run  in  large  quantities.  The  power  seine,  on 
the  contrary,  requires  about  the  same  complement  of  labor 
force — aside  from  the  cutters  ^ — when  the  catch  is  small  as 

1  The  cutters  are  those  who  head  and  gut  the  fish. 


93]  FISHING  IN  THE  EIGHTIES  93 

when  it  is  large.  Third,  only  certain  beaches  are  prac- 
ticable as  seine-landings,  while  the  pound-netter  can  land  his 
fish  almost  anywhere  he  can  get  a  canoe  ashore.  Another 
feature  of  pound-netting  is  that,  from  the  standpoint  of 
catching  fish,  a  small  amount  of  capital  invested  produces 
proportionately  as  great  results  as  does  a  large  amount.^ 
With  the  seine  this  is  not  true.  There  is  first  a  considerable 
outlay  for  cleaning  up  the  beach  and  seine-ground.  Then 
one  must  have  sufficient  capital  to  rig  up  and  fish  a  seine 
long  enough  to  reach  well  out  into  the  water,  else  it  is 
needless  for  him  to  fish  at  all,  except  when  the  fish  are  play- 
ing in  close  to  shore,  which  never  occurs  more  than  a  few 
days  during  a  season,  and  some  seasons  hardly  at  all. 

Responsible  f-or  the  Break-up  of  the  Fish  Monopoly. — 
From  Cannon's  Ferry  on  the  Chowan  river  clear  down  to 
the  Albemarle  sound,  and  along  its  shore  to  the  Yeopim 
river — practically  the  county's  entire  water-front  of  some 
forty  miles — one  would  find  in  1880  a  power  seine  every 
few  miles.  Sandwiched  in  between  were  the  small  oper- 
ators of  hand  seines,  gill-nets,  and  pound-nets.  Under 
the  conditions  existing  prior  to  the  introduction  of  pound- 
nets,  the  fishing  industry  of  the  county  was  practically  mono- 
polized by  a  very  few — probably  fifteen  or  twenty — com- 
paratively well-to-do  people.^  This  monopoly  existed  for 
two  reasons :  first,  a  few  people  owned  all  the  best  sites ; 
second,  only  a  few  people  had  the  capital  necessary  to  estab- 
lish and  maintain  seine  fisheries.  To  start  one  of  these, 
even  on  the  river,  required  an  initial  outlay  of  some  four 

^This  is  hardly  true  in  handling  them,  though  the  proportional  ad- 
vantage of  a  large  amount  of  capital  is  not  very  great  even  in  this 
respect. 

2  The  few  little  hand  seines  and  gill-nets  operated  were  almost  negli- 
gible when  their  catch  was  compared  to  the  total  catch  of  the  county. 
Cf.  table  14,  p.  279. 


94  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [94 

or  five  thousand  dollars,  while  the  big  seine  fisheries  on 
the  sound  were  rigged  out  at  an  expense  of  from  eight  to 
fifteen  thousand  dollars  each.  With  the  coming  of  the 
pound-nets  this  monopoly  melted  away.  As  above  stated, 
a  pound-net  fisherman  can  land  almost  anywhere.  Also,  at 
this  time  he  could  begin  business  on  a  very  small  scale,  hence 
those  who  had  only  a  little  capital,  but  who,  nevertheless, 
wanted  to  fish  on  their  own  responsibility,  now  had  an  op- 
portunity. Some  of  the  first  pound-netters  were  those  who 
had  formerly  fished  seine  on  wages.  Not  a  few  persons 
started  with  a  total  capital  outlay  well  under  three  hundred 
dollars,  and  operated  but  one  or  two  nets.  In  1880,  few 
if  any  persons  or  partnerships  operated  more  than  four  or 
five  pound-nets.  In  fact,  at  that  time  this  number  was  con- 
sidered a  big  stand,  while  at  present  the  larger  operators 
fish  from  twenj:y  to  thirty  pound-nets. 

SEINES 

Hand  Seines. — The  hand  seine  was  a  small  affair  of  from 
seventy-five  to  two  hundred  yards  of  shallow  netting,  and 
required  only  from  four  to  six  people  to  handle  it.  These 
seines  were  shot  by  boats  propelled  by  man  power,  and  also 
were  hauled  in  by  man-power  windlasses.  They  were  fished 
intermittently,  since,  because  of  their  fewness  of  yards,  it 
was  useless  to  haul  them  except  when  the  fish  were  playing 
in  close  to  the  shore.  The  men  would  make  a  haul,  say 
in  the  morning,  and  if  there  were  no  fish  they  would  hang 
up  till  the  afternoon,  and  if  there  were  still  none  and  no 
prospects  of  any  soon,  they  would  hang  up  till  the  next  day. 
When  there  was  a  big  run  of  fish  on,  and  coming  in  close, 
these  little  seines  would  sometimes  catch  from  fifty  to 
seventy-five  thousand  herring  a  day  for  a  day  or  two  in 
succession.^ 

1 1  have  it  on  unquestionable  authority  that  on  one  occasion  a  certain 
hand  seine  of  140  yards  (exclusive  of  rope)  caught  between  140,000 
and  150,000  in  two  days. 


95]  FISHING  IN  THE  EIGHTIES  95 

Power  Seines. — At  this  time  there  were  eight  horse-power 
seines  and  four  steam  seines  being  fished.  The  former  were 
shot  by  boats  propelled  by  men,  each  of  the  two  boats 
having  from  six  to  twelve  oarsmen,  the  number  depending 
upon  the  size  of  the  seine.  They  were  pulled  in  by  wind- 
lasses drawn  either  by  horses,  mules,  or  oxen.  The  steam 
seines  were  shot  by  steam-propelled  flats  and  hauled  by 
steam-driven  windlasses. 

Seines  on  the  river  were  from  600  to  1800  yards  long, 
while  those  on  the  sound  ranged  from  2300  to  2500  yards 
in  length.^  This  was  the  seine  from  staff  to  staff,  in  other 
words,  the  netting.  In  addition  to  this,  the  rope  on  the 
sea  end  was  about  as  long  as  the  seine  itself,  and  that  on 
the  land  end  something  like  half  its  length.  Thus,  count- 
ing both  the  seine  proper  and  the  additional  rope,  the  larger 
sound  seines  were  from  three  to  four  miles  long. 

Shooting  the  Seine. — The  rope  and  seine  as  they  were 
unwound  from  the  windlasses  were  piled  up  on  the  after- 
decks  of  two^  bateaux,  or  flat  boats,  which  were  then 
either  rowed  or  steamed  out  together  to  the  center-bush 
(about  a  mile  and  a  quarter  from  shore  at  the  big  fisheries). 
Here  they  separated,  the  "  land-end  "  boat  making  a  sort  of 
semi-circle  back  to  the  beach,  paying  off  first  the  seine  and 
then  the  rope,  while  the  "  sea-end  "  boat  either  continued 
its  course  for  some  distance,  then  turned  parallel  to  the 
shore,  or  else  at  once  turned  parallel  to  the  shore,  casting  off 
its  seine  as  it  went.  When  the  seine  was  all  off  and  nothing 
remained  but  the  extra  rope,  the  boat  headed  for  the 
beach.     This  operation  was  known  as  "  shooting  the  seine." 

On  the  river  the  "  land  end  "  was  the  end  upstream,  and 
on  the  sound,  the  end  towards  the  river.      The  fish  in 

1  For  the  location  and  size  of  the  big  seines,  cf.  table  15,  p.  281. 
'  The  small  hand  seines  used  only  one  boat ;  two  were  used  for  the 
big  seines  in  order  to  save  time  in  shooting. 


gS  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [g6 

the  river  were  supposed  to  be  running  upstream,  and 
those  in  the  sound  to  be  making  for  the  fresh  water  of  the 
river,  hence  the  reason  for  shooting  the  seine  in  the  shape 
described — the  open  sea-end  let  the  nsh  in,  while  the  closed 
land-end  headed  them  off. 

SEINE-CREWS 

Sise  and  Character. — .To  man  each  of  the  big  sound 
fisheries  properly,  some  fifty  men,  twenty  women  (these 
latter  were  the  cooks  and  cutters),  and  fifteen  mules  (for 
those  pulled  in  by  horse  power)  were  needed.  The  smaller 
seines  required  help  in  proportion/  On  the  sound  the 
whole  force,  except  the  managers,  and  sometimes  one  or 
two  others,  was  colored.  On  the  river,  in  addition  to  the 
managers  and  the  crew  captains  occasionally  a  few  others 
of  the  force  were  white.  Sometimes  white  women  cut  on 
the  river. 

Severity  of  the  Work  and  Coarseness  of  the  Fare. — When 
the  seines  put  in  at  the  beginning  of  the  season  they  never 
stopped,  except  on  Sundays  ^  and  in  case  of  a  severe  storm 
or  some  mishap,  till  the  season  closed.  Notwithstanding 
this  continuous  operation,  the  positions  of  manager  and  of 
shore-engineer  (in  the  case  of  steam-power  seines)  were 
the  only  positions  for  which  double  shifts  were  provided. 
Eating,  sleeping,  and  resting  took  place  when  there  was 
nothing  else  to  do.  Each  person  had  his  special  work  which 
had  to  be  done  at  a  certain  time  during  the  course  of  each 
haul.  When  this  was  done  he  was  at  liberty  till  this  point 
in  the  next  haul  came  around.  For  instance,  the  cutters 
and  "  shelter "  men  (those  who  helped  at  such  work  as 

1  For  a  detailed  statement  of  the  labor  required  cf.  table  13,  p.  276. 

2  Previous  to  the  Civil  War  the  big  seines  were  fished  Sundays  as  well 
as  week-days.  After  the  war  there  was  no  fishing  from  Saturday  mid- 
night till  Sunday  midnight. 


gy-j  FISHING  IN  THE  EIGHTIES  97 

washing,  counting  and  salting)  had  from  the  time  one  haul 
was  cleaned  up  till  the  next  was  landed.  When  there  was 
a  big  run  of  fish  on,  they  got  very  little  time  off.  Occasion- 
ally, when  tremendously  heavy  hauls  came  in,  the  seine 
would  have  to  stop,  and  everybody  lend  a  hand  in  cleaning 
up.  All  the  leisure  time  the  seine-haulers  (those  who  had 
to  do  with  the  shooting  and  landing  of  the  seine)  had  was 
from  one  to  two  and  a  half  hours  between  the  shooting  of 
the  seine  and  the  coming  ashore  of  the  staff.  Since  there 
were  only  from  three  to  six  hauls  (the  number  depending 
upon  the  size  of  the  seine,  weather  conditions,  and  whether 
horse  power  or  steam  power  was  used)  every  twenty-four 
hours,  it  is  readily  seen  that  the  spare  time  that  they  had 
was  not  sufficient  to  become  any  great  burden  to  them. 

Though  the 'work  was  hard,  necessitating  much  exposure, 
and  at  times  calling  for  continuous  application  for  several 
hours  in  succession,^  and  though  the  fare  was  rough — prin- 
cipally cheap  whiskey,  yeopon  tea,  corn-bread,  fish,  and 
molasses,  with  meat  and  flour  only  once  or  twice  a  week — 
nevertheless,  seining  seemed  to  have  a  peculiar  fascination 
for  the  men  and  women  who  followed  it. 

Whiskey. — Whiskey  was  considered  an  absolute  essential 
on  every  seine  beach,  both  by  laborers  and  proprietors.  A 
man  would  just  as  soon  have  thought  of  starting  up  his 
seine  without  cooks  as  without  liquor.     It  was  thought  to 

1  Previous  to  the  war  the  fishing  labor  was  largely  recruited  from 
among  the  free  colored  population  of  Chowan  and  the  adjoining 
counties.  The  slaves  liked  to  fish,  but  their  owners,  for  the  most  part, 
refused  to  allow  them  to  work  on  the  fishing  beaches  because  of  the 
great  exposure  to  which  they  were  subjected.  I  have  it  from  an  old 
fisherman  that  previous  to  the  war  the  men  had  neither  oil  clothes  nor 
rubber  boots.  They  even  cut  open  the  toes  of  their  shoes  so  that  the 
water  could  run  out  more  quickly.  Certain  men  had  to  stand  in  water 
up  to  their  hips  for  an  hour  or  so  each  haul.  In  later  times  these  men 
wore  either  hip  or  waist  boots,  and  so  were  protected. 


^8  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [gg 

protect  one  from  taking  cold.  One  former  seine-proprietor 
said  to  me  in  all  seriousness,  ''This  was  night  and  day  work, 
and  they  [the  laborers]  had  tO'  have  some  stimulants."  I 
have  it  from  old  seine-owners  that  it  was  the  cheapest 
whiskey  they  could  buy.  It  was  dealt  out  differently  at  the 
different  beaches,  but  the  seine-haulers  (they  were  the  men 
most  exposed)  received  a  rather  generous  supply  every- 
where. They  were  usually  given  a  gill  at  every  haul,^  while 
the  shelter  hands  were  given  a  gill  two  or  three  times  a  day, 
the  women  coming  in  for  a  "  nip  "  on  special  occasions,  for 
instance,  when  there  were  extra  long  hours  on  account  of  a 
big  run  of  fish. 

FISH -CATCH 

Quantity. — Seine-owners  aimed  to  ''put  in"  (begin  fish- 
ing) as  soon  as  they  thought  they  would  be  able  to  make 
bare  running  expenses.  For  the  first  ten  or  twenty  days  the 
catch  was  light,  but  during  the  height  of  the  season  the 
quantity  was  at  times  so  great  as  to  be  almost  incredible. 
I  am  informed  by  old  river  seine-haulers  and  proprietors 
that  single  hauls  of  a  hundred  thousand  herring,  besides 
the  other  fish,  have  been  made  on  the  Chowan  river.  The 
largest  haul  made  at  one  beach  on  the  sound  during  28  years' 
operation  (1879- 1907)  counted  out  110,000  herring,  1200 
shad,  and  500  pounds  of  rock.^  The  largest  haul  at  an- 
other sound  fishery  from  1890  to  1902  comprised  132,000 
herring  and  720  shad,  besides  some  rock  and  "  offal  fish  " 
(such  as  perch,  gars,  and  suckers).^     The  average  annual 

1  One  old  colored  man  who  hauled  seine  in  slavery  days,  told  me 
that  before  the  Civil  War  the  seine-haulers  received  three  gills  every 
haul — one  when  they  started  out  to  shoot  the  seine,  one  when  they 
came  ashore,  and  one  when  the  staff  came  in.  Liquor  in  those  days 
was  quite  cheap,  selling  around  ten  cents  a  quart. 

'  Information  furnished  by  the  proprietor  from  his  records. 

*  Information   furnished  by  the  proprietor. 


99]  FISHING  IN  THE  EIGHTIES  99 

herring  catch  per  plant  around  1880  was  about  1,750,000 
for  the  steam-power  sound  seines,  1,500,000  for  the  horse- 
power sound  seines,  and  1,000,000  for  the  horse-power 
river  seines.  The  average  annual  herring  catch  for  all 
apparatus  in  the  county  was  in  the  neighborhood  of 
1,000,000/ 

Variety  and  Disposition. — From  the  standpoint  of  bulk, 
the  fish  caught  were  chiefly  herring.  This  was  also  true 
of  their  value  on  the  river,  but  on  the  sound  the  "  iced 
fish"  ^  (principally  shad  and  rock,  though  a  few  perch,  and 
in  the  early  part  of  the  season,  a  few  herring)  were  nearly 
equal  in  value  to  the  herring,^  which  were  either  sold  fresh 
on  the  beach  to  the  farmers,  or  corned  and  shipped.  The 
river  fishermen  caught  comparatively  few  "  shipping  fish  " 
(fish  shipped  iced),  though  their  herring  catch  was  greater 
in  proportion  to  their  investment  than  was  that  of  the  sound 
fishermen. 

The  great  majority  of  the  people  who  bought  their  herring 
on  the  beach  fresh,  were  from  ten  to  twenty  miles  nearer 
the  river  fishermen  than  the  sound  fishermen,  hence  the 
former  sold  a  much  larger  proportion  of  their  herring  with- 
out having  to  do  anything  to  them,  except  cut,  wash,  and 
count  them,  than  did  the  latter.  As  a  rule  the  river  men 
did  not  make  preparations  for  salting,  packing  and  storing, 
as  the  sound  men  did.  In  fact,  many  made  little  or  none, 
and  so  were  compelled  to  sell  their  fish  as  soon  as  they  were 
caught,  if  they  were  catching  more  than  a  very  few.    These 

1  These  figures  are  all  estimates.  For  the  basis  upon  which  they  are 
made,  cf.  note  to  table  14,  p.  279. 

2  The  term  for  all  fish  iced  and  shipped  fresh. 

'^The  proprietor  of  one  of  the  largest  seines  pulled  on  the  sound 
informs  me  that  his  records  show  the  average  annual  value  ratio  of 
iced  fish  to  herring  caught  on  his  beach  from  1880  to  1885  to  have  been 
about  six  to  seven. 


lOO  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [joo 

conditions  made  river  prices  far  less  stable  than  sound 
prices.  When  a  big  run  of  herring  was  on  hand — some- 
times when  it  was  merely  expected — the  river  fishermen 
would  drop  their  prices  in  order  to  induce  the  farmers  to 
come  down  for  their  annual  supply.  Knowing  this,  many 
farmers  waited  for  these  low  prices,  and  for  this  reason 
sometimes  missed  getting  any  fish  at  all. 

Value. — On  the  sound,  herring  rarely  sold  below  three 
dollars  a  thousand,  but  on  the  river  they  went  to  two  dol- 
lars nearly  every  season,  and  frequently  to  one  dollar.  The 
low  prices  never  held  long,  however,  for  as  soon  as  the  big 
run  was  over  (usually  in  a  day  or  two,  at  most)  the  price 
would  go  back  to  about  three  dollars,  which  may  be  taken 
as  the  ruling  mid-season  price  for  seine  herring.  At  that 
time  the  beach  value  of  the  annual  herring  catch  (21,- 
000,000)  was  in  the  neighborhood  of  $71,000,  and  that  of 
the  iced-fish  $67,000,  making  a  grand  total  of  $138,000  for 
the  fish-catch  per  year.^ 

1  For  the  basis  of  the  estimated  price  per  thousand  of  herring  caught 
by  the  various  kinds  of  tackle,  and  for  the  estimated  total  beach  value, 
cf,  note  to  table  14,  p.  280. 


CHAPTER  VII 
Fishing  in  1915 

fascination  of  seining 

There  was  always  something  exciting  and  peculiarly- 
fascinating  about  the  landing  of  a  seine  to  which  few 
persons  ever  became  indifferent,  no  matter  how  often 
they  witnessed  the  scene.  It  was  a  sight  which  never 
seemed  to  pall.  Even  the  fish-hands  seldom  grew  weary 
of  watching  a  haul  land.  They  might  be  sleepy  and 
worn-out,  but  just  before  the  seine  was  beached  they 
almost  invariably  became  wide  awake  and  more  or  less 
excited.  Somehow  the  seine  engendered  for  itself  in 
the  hearts  of  the  people  a  kind  of  sentimental  attach- 
ment, and  so  at  its  passing  many  experienced  the  same 
poignant  regret  that  others  have  felt  at  the  passing  of 
the  buffalo,  the  blanket  Indian,  and  pioneer  life  in  gen- 
eral. But  like  so  many  other  implements  and  processes 
which  have  had  to  give  way  to  more  efficient  devices 
and  methods,  the  seine  was  forced  to  succumb  to  its 
economic  superior — the  pound  net. 

COMING  OF    POUND-NETS 

When  pound-nets  were  first  introduced  (1869),  the 
seine  owners  fought  them — even  tried  to  have  a  law 
passed  to  prevent  their  use.  The  few  people  who  owned 
the  seine  beaches  had  heretofore,  so  far  as  commercial 
fishing  went,  practically  owned  the  sound  and  river,  altho 
nominally  they  were  free  for  all  to  fish  in.     These  beach 

lOl]  lOI 


«  ^     ^      "*   ■*  „  ^  -!•       •' 


I02  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [102 

owners  saw  in  the  pound-net  an  instrument  that  was  to 
take  away  from  them  their  long-enjoyed  monopoly,  and, 
as  is  usually  the  case  with  *' vested  interests"  when 
threatened,  they  "raised  a  howl."  But  it  was  of  no 
avail.  Because  of  the  tremendous  advantages  possessed 
by  pound-nets  over  seines,^  the  former  multiplied  at  such 
a  rate  that  within  a  very  few  years  the  seine  owners 
noticed  a  decided  falling-off  in  their  catch.  One  by  one 
they  were  forced  to  quit  seining,  since  they  did  not  care 
to  operate  their  plants  at  a  loss.  By  1900  the  annual 
average  catch  of  the  individual  seines  still  running  was 
only  a  trifle  more  than  half  of  what  it  was  around  1880. 
The  catch  of  shad  had  dropped  especially  low.  After 
1902  there  was  operated  in  the  county  only  one  seine ; 
this  continued  up  to  and  including  the  season  of  1907. 
Since  then  all  commercial  fishing  has  been  done  with 
pound-  and  gill-nets,  the  latter  for  shad  only. 

RECENT    DEVELOPMENTS    IN    FISHING 

Other  than  the  displacing  of  seines  by  nets,  but  few 
changes  have  been  made  in  the  fishing  industry  since 
1880.  Shad  gill-nets  are  much  longer  now  than  then, 
and  are  anchored  instead  of  staked.  As  regards  pound- 
nets,  some  now  use  the  double-  instead  of  the  single- 
heart,  but  many  claim  that  there  is  little  or  no  advantage 
to  be  gained  by  this  innovation,  and  continue  to  use  the 
single-heart.  The  one  big  change — the  one  chief  step 
forward — has  been  the  substitution  of  gasoline-  for  sail- 
boats. 

The  advantages  of  the  gas-boat  in  pound-net '^  fishing 
over  the  sailboat  are  several.      In  the  first  place,  three 

1  Cf.  supra,  pp.  92,  93. 

2  Some  of  the  gill-net  men  also  use  gas-boats  as  tenders. 


103]  FISHING  IN  1915  IO3 

men  (they  usually  go  three  to  a  boat)  can  fish  more  than 
twice  as  many  nets  when  using  gas  as  when  using  sail, 
and  what  is  more,  with  vastly  greater  ease.  Second, 
they  can  fish  at  a  far  greater  distance  from  their  land- 
ing place,  which  allows  fishermen  to  try  their  fortunes 
over  a  much  wider  area  than  formerly.  Third,  when  a 
boat  goes  out,  the  time  of  its  return  can  be  figured  with 
a  reasonable  degree  of  certainty,  while  in  the  days  of 
the  sailboat,  the  time  of  the  return  was  rather  a  matter 
of  conjecture.  Fourth,  one  can  fish  in  rougher  weather 
with  gas  than  with  sail.  Fifth,  it  is  now  possible  to 
fish  the  nets  fairly  regularly,  and  usually  as  often  as  nec- 
essary, while  in  former  days,  if  a  big  run  of  fish  was 
accompanied  by  adverse  weather  conditions  for  sailing, 
many  fish  died  before  they  were  ever  taken  from  the 
nets.  Finally,  fish  are  no  longer  damaged  while  enroute 
from  the  net  to  the  beach,  which  in  the  days  of  sailboats 
was  a  common  occurrence.  Sometimes  a  boat  would 
get  becalmed,  and  the  fish  would  be  seriously  injured 
before  they  could  be  got  ashore.  Because  of  the  liability 
of  the  fish  to  damage,  both  in  the  net  and  while  enroute 
to  the  beach,  pound-net  herring  usually  sold  for  fifty 
cents  a  thousand  less  than  seine  herring.'  Under  the 
present  arrangements,  pound-net  fish  should  be  as  good 
as  seine  fish. 

FISH-CATCH  AND   VALUE 

For  the  five-year  period  1909-1914,  the  herring  catch 
averaged  about  20,000  per  pound-net  annually.  In  1914 
there  were  licensed  999  pound-nets,  633  of  which  were 
on  the  river  and  366  on  the  sound.  Counting  20,000 
to  the  net,  the  herring  catch  that  season  was  19,980,000 
— in    round    numbers  twenty  million.     And    the   beach 

1  Cf.  fcx)tnote  to  table  14,  p.  280. 


I04  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [104 

value,  reckoning  river  herring  and  sound  herring  at 
$3.00  and  $3.50  per  1000,  respectively,  was  $63,600.  The 
average  annual  value  of  iced  fish  per  pound-net  for  the 
same  five-year  period  was  about  twelve  dollars  for  those 
on  the  sound  and  fifty  dollars  for  those  on  the  river.  On 
this  basis  the  value  of  the  iced  fish  caught  by  the  pound- 
nets  in  1914  was  $25,896.  The  estimated  value  of  the 
gill-net  catch  was  $12,040,  making  a  grand  total  of 
$101,536  for  the  county's  entire  catch  of  fish  in  1914.' 

RELATIVE  IMPORTANCE  OF  FISHING  IN   1880  AND   I9I4 

Capital  Invested. — According  to  my  estimates,  the 
capital  invested  in  fishing  in  1880  was  not  only  more 
than  five  times  as  great  as  it  was  in  1914,''  in  proportion 
to  the  total  property  value  of  the  county,  but  it  was  also 
greater  in  absolute  amount.  The  catch,  too,  was  greater 
in  the  first  period  than  in  the  second,  both  in  amount 
and  value.  As  may  be  seen  by  referring  to  table  14,  page 
263,  the  greatest  loss  in  value  has  been  due  to  the  less- 
ened catch  of  iced  fish. 

Fish  Consumption. — The  fishing  industry  of  the  county 
had  a  far  greater  comparative  significance  for  the  people 
in  the  eighties  and  nineties  than  is  brought  out  by  any 
of  the  facts  thus  far  mentioned.  At  this  time  herring 
constituted  the  larger  portion  of  the  meat  element  in 
the  diet  of  a  majority  of  the  people.  Many  a  one  had 
herring  three  times  a  day  for  days  in  succession,  and 
little  else  besides,  except  bread  and  tea — his  herring  was 

1  For  the  basis  of  these  estimates,  and  for  further  details,  cj.  table  14, 
and  footnote  to  same,  pp.  279,  280. 

2  In  1880  the  capital  invested  was  4.14  per  cent  of  the  total  taxed  values 
of  the  county,  while  in  1914  it  represented  but  .79  per  cent  of  the 
total.     Cf.  supra,  footnote,  p.  91,  and  table  13,  p.  276. 


I05]  FISHING  IN  1915  10^ 

either  boiled  in  clear  water  or  broiled '  on  the  coals ;  his 
bread  was  made  of  cornmeal  and  water  only ;  his  tea  was 
**  black  yeopon  "  (tea  with  neither  milk  nor  sugar). 

With  herring  at  two  dollars  and  fifty  cents  a  thousand 
{the  average  price  when  the  family  fish  were  bought  was 
not  more,  the  higher-priced  fish  of  the  early  part  of  the 
season  being,  for  the  most  part,  marketed  outside  of  the 
county)  and  corn  at  forty  cents  a  bushel  (the  customary 
price  around  housing  time,  in  the  eighties  and  nineties), 
a  dollar  a  month  would  procure  for  a  person  the  most 
usual  diet  of  much  of  the  population.  This  source  of 
cheap  food,  taken  in  connection  with  the  mild  climate, 
meant  that  a  person  could  exist  with  very  little  work — 
and  not  a  few  of  the  inhabitants  did  so. 

Of  the  annual  catch  of  herring  in  the  eighties,  some 
forty  per  cent — from  8,000,000  to  9,000,000 — were  sold 
fresh  on  the  beach.  The  county's  consumption  of  these, 
however,  was  probably  only  about  6,500,000,  since  some 
were  carted  off  to  Virginia  and  peddled  out,  some  sold 

1  Herring  were  put  up  in  two  ways — dried  and  pickled,  corresponding 
to  bacon  and  salt  pork,  respectively.  The  dried  herring  were  either 
boiled  in  clear  water  and  eaten  just  so,  or  after  being  boiled  were  then 
fried.  By  the  first  method  no  grease  was  required,  and  by  the  second, 
but  very  Httle. 

Pickled  herring  that  have  been  properly  cured  in  the  early  part  of 
the  season  when  herring  are  fat,  and  then  properly  cooked,  furnish  a 
table  delicacy  that  is  seldom  surpassed  by  any  dish  in  its  appeal  to  the 
appetite.  They  are  at  their  best  when  spHt  open,  mealed,  and  fried 
right  out  of  the  water,  after  having  been  soaked  for  a  few  hours. 
To  prepare  them  this  way,  however,  requires  a  considerable  amount 
of  grease,  and  since  grease  was  a  rather  scarce  article  in  the  vast 
majority  of  households,  most  of  the  pickled  fish  had  to  be  cooked  in  a 
less  expensive,  even  though  less  appetizing,  manner.  The  greatest  num- 
ber of  them  were  first  soaked,  in  order  to  get  rid  of  the  surplus  salt, 
then  stuck  on  a  reed  and  hung  out  on  the  side  of  the  smoke-house 
to  dry.  After  they  had  dried  for  a  few  days  they  could  be  either 
fried  with  very  little  grease  or  else  broiled,  which  required  no  grease 
at  all. 


Io6  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [io6 

to  farmers  (who  came  down  for  them)  from  Nansemond 
County,  Va.,  and  a  milHon  or  two  sold  to  the  farmers 
from  Gates  County,  N.  C.'  In  1914  the  beach  sales  were 
from  thirty  to  thirty-five  per  cent  of  the  20,000,000 
herring  caught  that  season — reduced  to  absolute  num- 
bers, from  6,000,000  to  7,000,000.  Probably  about 
5,000,000  of  these  were  consumed  in  the  county." 

Assuming  that  the  estimates  in  the  preceding  para- 
graph are  approximately  correct,  the  7900  population 
of  1880  consumed  thirty  per  cent  more  herring  than 
the  population  of  1914  (estimated  on  December  31  at 
1 1,801 3).  Per  capita,  the  consumption  was  more  than 
double  in  1880  what  it  was  in  191 4.  This  falling  off  of 
fish  in  the  diet  is  one  of  the  many  indications  of  the 
vast  improvement  that  has  been  made  in  the  economic 
welfare  of  the  people.  It  should  by  no  means  be  under- 
stood that  fish  are  thought  to  be  a  poor  food.  The 
point  here  is  that  the  people  have  become  better  able  to 
vary  their  bill  of  fare  and  eat  fish  only  when  their  appe- 
tite calls  for  it. 

1  Some  also  were  sold  to  carts  from  the  adjoining  county  of  Perqui- 
mans, but  in  all  probability  Perquimans  sold  fully  as  many  (perhaps 
m.ore)  fish  to  Chowan  as  she  bought  of  her. 

2  The  estimates  of  this  paragraph  are  based  on  numerous  interviews 
with  both  the  sellers  and  the  consumers  of  fish,  and  upon  my  own  knowl- 
edge of  general  conditions.  Many  families  put  up  for  their  own  use 
from  eight  to  twelve  hundred  herring  for  each  of  its  members.  Besides 
those  for  their  own  use,  not  a  few  of  the  more  substantial  families 
put  up  some  to  sell,  particularly  to  their  hired  hands  and  their  tenants. 

»The  estimated  population  for  December  31,  1914  was  obtained  as 
follows:  To  the  population  (11,303)  on  April  15,  1910,  was  added  the 
product  of  the  average  monthly  increase  (8,819)  during  the  previous 
decade  by  the  total  number  of  months  (56.6)  between  April  15,  1910  and 
December  31,  19 14.  This  is  not  a  very  exact  method  of  calculating 
the  population  at  intercensus  periods,  but  sufficiently  so  for  the  present 
purpose. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
Manufacturing  in  the  Eighties 

TYPE    OF   manufacturing 

There  was  no  sort  of  establishment  in  the  county  in 
1880  that  could  be  termed  a  factory  in  the  modern  sense 
of  the  term.  Manufacturing  there  was,  and  in  consider- 
able quantities,  but  it  was  all  of  the  domestic  or  hand 
variety.  For  certain  work,  such  as  making  brick,  sawing, 
and  ginning,  it  was  necessary  for  two  or  more  people  to 
co-operate,  and  such  industries  as  milling  and  ginning 
called  for  a  few  hundred  dollars  capital  outlay  for  plant 
construction.  Most  manufacturing,  however,  was  by 
single  individuals,  laboring  separately,  and  with  few  and 
simple  tools  of  small  value.  The  manufactured  articles 
were  practically  all  destined  for  home  consumption,  and 
largely  for  the  consumption  of  the  families  of  those  di- 
rectly concerned  in  their  production. 

ARTICLES    PRODUCED 

At  this  time  the  people  of  Chowan  were  rather  near 
neighborhood,  and  to  a  large  extent  family,  self-suffici- 
ency.'    Aside  from  iron,  salt,  nails,  a  little  cutlery  and 

1  In  slavery  days  the  larger  owners  lived  on  or  near  the  sound 
and  the  river,  where  was  much  of  the  best  land  as  well  as  the  best 
opportunity  for  marketing  its  products.  After  the  invention  of  the 
cotton  gin  (1792)  the  big  slave  owners  began  turning  their  attention  to 
the  raising  of  cotton.  As  the  production  of  cotton  increased,  that  of 
other  crops  fell  off,  as  did  frequently  also  the  domestic  manufactures, 
hence  many  of  the  supplies  formerly  produced  right  on  the  plantation, 
were  now  bought.  After  the  war,  the  freedmen  for  the  most  part 
107]  107 


I08  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [io8 

tableware,  window-glass,  some  cooking  utensils  (such  as 
creepers,  pots,  kettles,  and  frying  pans),  thread,  pins, 
buttons,  needles,  the  iron  parts  of  some  farming  utensils, 
a  few  books,  the  saws  and  mill-stones  of  water-mills,  the 
saws,  mill-stones,  boilers,  and  engines  of  steam-mills,  the 
actual  gins  of  the  ginneries,  and  the  belting  and  gearing 
of  machinery,  they  were  producing  some,  and  in  a  major- 
ity of  instances  all,  of  everything  the  great  mass  of  the 
people  consumed.  While  they  manufactured  no  cook- 
stoves,  pianos,  sewing  machines,  clocks,  or  watches,  such 
luxuries  as  these  were  enjoyed  by  but  few.' 

They  tanned  some  of  their  leather,  made  some  of  their 
shoes,  hats,  and  caps,  knit  most  of  their  socks,  either 
knit,  wove,  or  made  from  shirting  many  of  their  suspen- 
ders, spun  and  wove  some  of  their  cloth,  and  made 
practically  all  of  the  wearing  apparel  (except  shoes) 
for  the  women  and  children  and  most  of  that  for  the 
men  (except  shoes,  hats  and  the  Sunday  suits  of  a  few). 
They  grew  the  feathers  for  their  beds,  and  the  corn 
shucks,  wheat  straw,  and  cotton  for  their  mattresses — all 
of  which  they  put  together  themselves.  They  turned 
many  of  their  bedsteads  and  chairs,  and  all  of  the  covering 
they  slept  under  was  of  their  own  make.  Most  of  their 
kitchen  furniture  and  utensils,  such  as  tables,  benches, 
cupboards,  bread-trays,  griddles,  sieves,  and  brooms  were 
home-made.  They  coopered  most  of  their  tubs  and 
many  of  their  barrels,  casks,  wash-basins,  water-buckets, 

remained  on  the  farms  of  their  former  owners,  either  as  tenants  or 
laborers,  and  continued  raising  cotton  and  buying  most  of  their  supplies,, 
though  part  of  these  came  off  their  landlords*  own  plantations.  These 
two  classes — the  owners  of  big  farms  and  the  negroes  who  worked 
them — by  no  means  approached  the  degree  of  family  self-sufficiency 
as  did  the  majority  of  the  white  and  colored  families  living  in  the 
sections  where  there  had  been  the  fewest  slaves. 
1  Cf.  infra,  ch.  xx. 


109]  MANUFACTURING  IN  THE  EIGHTIES  109 

and  dinner  pails.  They  improvised  by  far  the  greater 
number  of  their  own  dippers,  occasionally  from  conch 
shells,  more  frequently  from  cocoanut  hulls,  but  largely 
from  the  common  gourd,  which  was  cut,  scraped,  boiled, 
scrubbed,  and  sunned  to  remove  the  ''  gourdy  "  taste  and 
smell — said  taste  and  smell,  however,  in  spite  of  all  these 
efforts,  remaining  to  a  more  or  less  degree  just  as  long 
as  there  was  a  piece  of  the  gourd.  All  of  their  cradles 
and  coffins,  and  most  of  their  tombstones  were  made  at 
home.  All  of  their  looms,  spinning-wheels,  cart-wheels, 
cart-saddles,  carts,  ox  yokes,  back  bands,  and  tugs,  most 
of  their  cotton-planters,  and  traces,  and  many  of  their 
horse  collars  and  hames,  originated  within  their  own 
bounds.  They  made  their  rakes,  helved  their  hoes  and 
axes,  and  made  and  stocked  some  of  their  plows.  They 
built  their  own  boats  and  made  their  own  seines,  nets 
and  fishing  tackle  in  general.  They  salted  down  their 
own  fish,  butchered  and  baconed  their  own  meat,'  ren- 
dered their  own  lard,  stuffed  their  own  sausage,  and 
boiled  most  of  their  own  soap.  Their  tea  (yeopon) 
was  home-cured  as  well  as  home-grown,  their  corn-meal 
and  much  of  their  wheat-flour  was  home-grown,  and 
their  hominy  was  home-beaten.  They  brewed  their  own 
beers,  pressed  their  own  ciders  and  wines,  and  distilled 
their  own  liquors.  They  burned  all  their  brick,  tar,  and 
coal  (charcoal),  rived  all  their  boards  and  pales,  rived 
and  drew  all  of  their  shingles,  hewed  all  of  their  sills  and 
sleepers,  many  of  their  joists,  laths  and  rafters,  and 
much  of  their  studding.  Most  of  their  doors  were  home- 
made, and  not  a  few  of  them  were  hung  on  hinges  of 
their  own  make  and  secured  by  locks  of  the  same  hum- 

1  Some  of  the  big  cotton  raisers  and  most  of  the  negro  tenants  bought 
the  greater  part  of  what  meat  they  used,  though  many  of  them  used  but 
little. 


no  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [no 

ble  origin.  All  lumber  was  hand-dressed,  and  all  mould- 
ings and  most  other  trimmings  were  hand-made.  The 
babies  cut  their  teeth  on  home-made  pacificators,  and 
the  older  children  played  with  toys  of  either  their  own  or 
their  elders'  production.  The  number  of  physicians  was 
small  and  the  ability  to  pay  them  smaller,  hence  many  of 
them  secured  a  large  part  of  their  living  from  their  own 
farms ;  while  the  people  when  wounded  did  the  most  of 
their  own  sterilizing  and  bandaging,  and  when  sick,  in  no 
small  degree  made  their  own  diagnoses,  prescribed  their 
own  remedies,  and  filled  their  own  prescriptions  from 
drugs  largely  compounded  from  roots  and  herbs  grown 
in  their  own  fields  and  woods. 

ROLE    OF   WOMEN 

In  manufacturing,  the  role  played  by  the  women  was 
of  no  less  importance  than  that  played  by  the  men.  For 
the  most  part  they  had  charge  of  the  food  and  clothing, 
while  buildings,  tools,  furniture,  and  utensils  were  chiefly 
constructed  by  the  men.  In  other  words,  the  men  made 
most  of  the  articles  that  were  of  leather,  wood  and  iron. 
The  products  of  the  women  were  turned  out  almost 
entirely  by  each  in  her  own  home.  There  was  virtually 
no  division  of  labor  among  them,  each  doing  in  her  own 
home  what  the  others  were  doing  in  theirs,  and  while 
some  did  certain  work  better  than  did  others,  there  was 
the  same  kind  of  work  for  all.  With  the  men,  while  each 
was  to  a  greater  or  less  degree  his  own  carpenter  and 
repairman,  there  nevertheless  was  some  division  of  labor. 
Different  men  made  specialities  of  different  things  which 
they  did  for  the  public  when  not  working  on  their  farms. 
For  instance,  some  tanned,  some  cobbled,  some  coop- 
ered, some  carpentered,  and  so  on  down  the  list  of  do- 
mestic manufactures. 


Ill]  MANUFACTURING  IN  THE  EIGHTIES  1 1  r 

CAPITAL    AND    LABOR 

As  previously  stated,  certain  manufacturing  demanded 
an  outlay  of  several  hundred  dollars  for  the  erection  of 
each  plant  in  which  it  was  carried  on,  and  certain  manu- 
facturing demanded  the  cooperation  of  two  or  more 
persons.  But  the  capital  expenditure,  except  in  the  case 
of  saw-mills,  went  largely  to  neighboring  farmers  for  the 
labor  of  construction  (only  those  parts  were  bought 
outright  that  could  not  be  made  locally),  and  the  plants 
requiring  the  largest  force  for  operation  could  run  at 
full  capacity  with  five  or  six  hands.  Thus  it  is  seen  that 
little  capital  left  the  county  for  the  construction  of  plants, 
and  little  organization  was  needed  to  operate  them.  Fre- 
quently these  plants  were  either  owned  in  co-partnership 
by  two  or  three  people  who  did  their  own  work,  or  by 
individuals  who  had  sufficient  force  of  their  own  to  man 
them.  In  any  case,  the  plants  were  owned  and  the  labor 
furnished  by  the  neighboring  farmers. 

With  the  possible  exception  of  some  of  the  millers  of 
water-mills,  and  eight  or  ten  people  in  Edenton,  few,  if  any, 
depended  entirely  upon  manufacturing  for  a  living.  Most 
men  were  farmers  first,  and  carpenters,  blacksmiths,  cob- 
blers, or  whatever  else  they  were,  afterwards.  By  far  the 
greater  part  of  all  manufacturing  and  building  was  done 
out  of  crop  season,  it  being  customary  for  all  plants, 
except  grist-mills,  to  lie  idle  most  of  the  time  when  the 
farmers  were  busy  in  their  fields. 

PERMANENT    PLANTS 

Water-Mills. — There  were  in  the  county  five  water- 
mills,  all  of  which  ground  corn,  three  of  which  had  ma- 
chinery for  making  wheat  flour,  and  two  of  which  had 
saws.  To  man  these,  when  grinding  corn,  only  one 
person   was   needed;    when   grinding   wheat,   two  were 


112  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [112 

frequently  on  hand ;  when  sawing,  from  two  to  four  were 
required.  The  water  grist-mills  ground  every  day  when 
they  had  corn,  except  during  occasional  dry  spells  in  the 
summer  when  they  had  no  water. 

Steam-mills. — The  steam-mills,  of  which  there  were 
some  four  or  five  in  the  county,  were  erected  first  for 
sawing  only,  but  later  some  of  them  added  grist-mills 
for  corn.  They  got  little  grinding  to  do,  however 
(except  when  protracted  dry  weather  temporarily  threw 
the  water-mills  out  of  commission),  because  everybody 
preferred  water- ground  meal  to  steam-ground.  Meal 
made  by  water  power  is  no  better  than  that  made  by 
steam  power,  when  all  other  conditions  are  the  same 
in  each  case,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  many  think 
the  contrary.'  The  trouble  was,  other  conditions  were  not 
usually  the  same.  The  chief  work  of  the  miller  at  the 
water-mill  was  grinding,  hence  he  became  more  or  less 
of  an  expert.  The  millers  of  steam-mills,  on  the  other 
hand,  ground  but  one  day""  each  week,  and  generally 
had  but  little  to  do  then.  The  meal  from  the  steam- 
mills  was  usually  either  too  fine  or  too  coarse,  and  occa- 
sionally burnt. 

The  steam-mills  were  small — ten  or  twelve  horse-power 
boilers  and  engines — and  did  but  one  thing  at  a  time. 
To  man  them  when  grinding,  two  men  were  required, 
and  when  sawing,  from  four  to  six. 

Gins, — So  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  learn,  all  the  gins 
in  1880  were  driven  by  horse  power.  Of  these  there  were 
probably  twenty  or  thirty.  Many  of  the  larger  planta- 
tions had  their  own  gins.     They  could  utilize  their  men 

1  No  later  than  May  191 5,  I  saw  this  old  fiction  being  exploited  by- 
one  of  the  biggest  grocery  firms  in  New  York  city. 

2  Usually  Friday,  but  if  they  failed  to  get  through  on  this  day  they 
finished  on  Saturday. 


113]  MANUFACTURING  IN  THE  EIGHTIES  113 

and  teams  for  this  work  at  times  when  otherwise  they 
would  have  been  doing  comparatively  little.  The  usual 
capacity  was  two  bales  a  day,  working  four  horses  and 
four  men.  By  using  two  shifts  of  horses,  driving  hard, 
and  working  both  early  and  late,  some  gins  occasionally 
put  out  four  bales  a  day. 

BRICK-MAKING 

Making  brick,  the  only  other  manufacturing  process 
not  considered  which  called  for  the  labor  of  several  peo- 
ple, required  little  but  water,  clay,  sand,  and  labor.  First, 
the  prospective  brick-maker  picked  out  the  least  fertile 
spot  on  his  place  that  had  good  accessible  clay;  then, 
with  a  hammer,  hand-saw,  axe,  some  nails,  and  a  few 
boards  and  poles  obtained  from  the  near-by  woods,  he 
knocked  together,  within  a  few  hours,  a  crude  mill  for 
grinding  and  mixing  his  material,  and  a  shelter  of  simi- 
lar rough  character  for  protecting  his  dry  bricks  from 
the  rain;  next,  he  dug  a  hole  in  the  ground  near-by 
for  water,  and,  finally,  he  made  five  or  six  molds,  which 
completed  his  special  equipment.  It  took  one  horse 
to  pull  the  mill,  and  from  four  to  six  men  to  tend  it. 
Thus  manned,  the  output  was  from  four  to  six  thousand 
bricks  a  day,  or  about  a  thousand  per  man.  This  has 
reference  to  the  actual  making  of  the  bricks  and  put- 
ting them  on  the  yard ;  the  work  of  hacking  them  and 
putting  them  under  the  shelter  being  extra.  Quite 
often,  however,  one  was  not  troubled  with  this  latter 
work,  for  showers  frequently  came  up  and  melted  them 
down  before  they  were  dry  enough  to  hack.  On  an  aver- 
age, one  year  with  another,  something  like  a  third  of  the 
bricks  put  on  the  yards  were  lost  in  this  way.  The  cus- 
tomary size  kiln  was  around  thirty  thousand.  Some  sea- 
sons, when  the  weather  was  especially  unfavorable,  it  was 


114  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [114 

necessary  to  put  out  twice  this  number  in  order  to  have 
the  usual  size  kiln. 

Most  of  the  bricks  were  made  in  July  and  August  after 
crops  were  laid  by.  Then  in  the  late  fall,  after  crops 
were  housed,  twenty-five  or  thirty  of  the  neighbors  would 
be  asked  to  meet  at  the  brickyard  on  a  certain  Monday 
morning  and  help  "  set "  (kiln)  them,  which  was  an  all- 
day  job.  If  one  had  **  good  luck,"  in  other  words,  if  his 
bricks  had  been  properly  kilned  and  he  had  good  wood 
and  knew  what  he  was  doing,  he  finished  burning  by  the 
following  Friday  or  Saturday  night.  Occasionally, 
however,  when  he  had  '*  bad  luck,'*  it  was  necessary  to 
burn  over  Sunday. 

SUMMARY  OF  SELF-SUFFICIENCY 

In  infancy,  the  people  of  the  Chowan  of  1880  were 
swaddled  in  home-made  clothes,  rocked  in  home-made 
cradles,  and  placated  with  home-made  toys  ;  in  childhood, 
they  pulled  home-made  wagons  and  stole  home-made 
jams ;  in  youth,  they  courted  their  sweethearts  on  home- 
made benches  and  took  them  "  joy-riding  "  on  home-made 
carts ;  all  thru  life  they  dressed  largely  in  home-made  ap- 
parel, fed  on  home-grown  and  home-prepared  foods,  shel- 
tered themselves  in  houses  constructed  from  home-made 
materials,  slept  upon  home-made  beds  and  under  home- 
made covering,  exhilarated  their  drooping  spirits  with 
home-made  cordials,  salved  their  wounds  with  home-made 
ointments,  and  stilled  their  pains  with  home-made  rem- 
edies ;  when  the  death-angel  finally  summoned  them  to 
their  reward,  they  were  laid  out  on  home-made  mattres- 
ses, encased  in  home-made  coiifins,  carted  off  to  the  grave 
in  home-made  vehicles,  and  their  last  resting  place, 
were  marked  by  home-made  tombstones.' 

1  They  were  usually  of  lightwood,  or  red  cedar,  with  the  name,  date 
of  birth,  and  date  of  death  cut  on  them  with  a  pocket  knife. 


CHAPTER  IX 

Manufacturing  in  19 15 

factories  ^ 

The  following  is  a  list  of  the  factories  that  were  oper- 
ated in  Chowan  in  191 5  : 

Class  i 
rural  plants  which  run  intermittently,  and  supply  only  neighbcmh- 

hood  demands 
Steam  Power  No. 

Saw  mills  2 12 

Shingle  mills 6 

Planing  mills 6 

Grist  mills 3 

Cotton  gins 15 

Water  Power 

Saw  mills i 

Grist  mills 3 

1  Blacksmith  shops,  carpenter  shops,  and  general  repair  shops,  of 
which  there  are  several,  have  not  been  included,  although  they  produce 
a  few  articles,  especially  carts.  They  have  been  left  out  of  account 
because  (i)  the  amount  of  machinery  used  is  small,  (2)  they  are  usually 
operated  as  one-man  establishments  (except  in  heavy  work,  when  a 
helper  is  needed),  and  (3)  the  work  is  principally  that  of  repairing. 

2  One  of  these  shipped  75,ooo  feet  out  of  the  county  during  1914,  on« 
"only  a  very  little"  (it  cut  only  about  300,000  feet  during  1914,  and 
principally  for  local  trade),  and  one  other  from  which  no  definite  re- 
port was  obtained,  shipped  out  a  very  little. 

115]  115 


Il6  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [ii6 

Class  2 

plants  so  per  cent  or  more  of  whose  products  arf  consumed  in 
chowan,  and  90  per  cent  or  more  of  the  remainder  in  the  five  or 
six  adjoining  counties 

Saw  mills i 

Sash,  door,  and  blind  mills i 

Grist  mills i 

Brick  mills 2 

Fertilizer  mills i 

Ice  factories i 

Class  3 

plants  producing  almost  wholly  for  markets  outside  of  the  county 

Peanut  mills 

Cotton  mills 

Veneer  mills 

Saw  mills 

Planing  mills 

Cotton-seed  oil  mills 

Canneries 2 

NUMBER,   SIZE,  AND  CHARACTERISTICS   OF  FACTORIES 

The  above  table  of  factories  lists  sixty  plants.  Strictly 
speaking,  however,  this  number  is  too  large,  since  in  many 
cases  four  or  five  of  the  units  listed  actually  constituted  one 
plant.  For  instance,  in  "  Class  i  "  all  the  shingle-mills, 
planing-mills,  steam  grist-mills,  and  several  of  the  cotton 
gins  are  run  in  connection  with  saw-mills.  Counting  as 
only  one  plant  the  various  units  which  in  each  case  are 
located  together  and  operated  as  one  plant,  there  are  only 
thirty-five. 

We  have  now  arrived  at  a  period  when  we  have  real 
factories  that  contribute  to  world  markets  —  factories 
whose  office  and  managerial  force  are  equal  in  size  to 
the  whole  crew  of  the  largest  plant  in  operation  in 
1880 — factories  whose  laborers  follow  factory  work  for 
their  entire  subsistence,  rather  than  as  a  mere  supplement 


I  ly]  MANUFACTURING  IN  1915  1 17 

to  their  agricultural  activities.  As  yet,  however,  only  a 
beginning  has  been  made.  The  manufacturing  interests 
which  help  supply  outside  markets  are  small,  and  the  people 
who  depend  solely  on  factory  work  for  a  living  are  few. 
The  forty-one  units  in  "  Class  i  "  run  intermittently,  have 
their  labor  supplied  mostly  by  persons  whose  chief  busi- 
ness is  agriculture,  and  with  the  three  exceptions  noted, 
cater  only  to  neighborhood  wants.  Another  feature  of 
this  class  of  plants  is  that  for  the  most  part  they  work  up 
only  the  raw  material  brought  tO'  them  by  those  who  are  go- 
ing to  take  the  finished  product  away,  and,  omitting  the 
cotton,  use  it  in  their  own  families.  Except  the  water 
grist-mills  (which  probably  operate,  on  an  average,  from 
one  hundred  to  one  hundred  and  fifty  days  a  year  each 
at  full  capacity,  and  require  only  one  man  to  run  them), 
these  units  in  19 14  operated  from  twenty  to  ninety  days 
each,  and  required  from  two  to  ten  men  each  to  man  them. 
In  19 14  there  were  in  the  county  only  four  manufactur- 
ing firms,  namely,  "  Edenton  Cotton  Mills,"  "  Wilks 
Veneer  Co.,"  "  Branning  Manufacturing  Co."  (saw-mill 
and  planing-mill),  and  "  M.  G.  Brown"  (saw-mill,  sash, 
door,  and  blindrmill,  and  grist-mill),  that  employed  as  many 
as  ten  men  each  for  150  days  during  the  year.  The  total 
number  of  employees  of  these  four  firms  fluctuated  around 
350,  and  the  plants  were  operated  from  270  to  314  days 
each.  The  other  plants  of  "  Class  2  "  and  "  Class  3  " 
either  required  fewer  than  ten  hands,  or  operated  less  than 
half  time.  The  brick-yards,  for  instance,  operated  about 
eight  months  in  the  year,  but  more  than  half  the  time  they 
required  only  from  four  to  six  men  each.  Several  of  the 
extra  men  tended  little  crops.  One  of  the  canneries  oper- 
ates only  in  the  herring-roe  season,  which  is  of  but  few 
days  duration  each  spring.  The  other  cans  roe,  green  peas 
and  tomatoes.     It  probably  runs  on  an  average  about  forty 


OF  THE 
UNIVEKSJ 

e       OF 


Il8  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [ng 

days  a  year,  all  told/  These  canneries  work  from  ten  to 
seventy-five  hands  (mostly  colored  women)  each,  the  number 
depending  upon  the  kind  of  material  they  are  putting  up 
and  the  amount  they  have  on  hand.  For  instance,  a  much 
larger  force  is  needed  when  canning  tomatoes  than  when 
canning  roe,  because  in  canning  tomatoes  the  greater  part 
of  the  work  is  peeling. 

PASSING  OF  HOUSEHOLD  MANUFACTURING 

As  for  manufacturing  in  the  home,  it  is  fast  becoming  a 
thing  of  the  past.  The  hum  of  the  spinning-wheel,  the 
chuck,  chuck  of  the  shuttle,  and  the  bang,  bang  of  the 
loom,  are  no  longer  familiar  household  sounds.  Knitting 
has  gone  out  of  fashion,  and  the  few  who  do  occasionally 
knit  a  little  buy  their  yarn  already  spun.  The  point  was 
reached  some  years  ago  where  "  ladies  wear  silk  hosiery 
and  never  knit  a  stitch."  Probably  forty  per  cent  of  the 
entire  clothing  of  women  and  children  and  eighty  per  cent 
of  that  worn  by  men,  is  now  either  bought  ready-made,  or 
tailored  to  measure  by  some  merchant  tailor.  This  buying 
of  clothes  instead  of  making  them  is  confined  tO'  no  class  or 
color.  It  is  nO'  uncommon  sight  to  see  a  Negro  day-laborer 
wearing  a  suit  of  just  as  high-grade  tailoring  and  material 
as  the  suits  worn  by  the  best-to-do  whites  in  the  county. 
Hardly  any  of  the  men  and  boys  now  wear  home-made 
outer  garments  even  for  every  day  working  clothes.  The 
ubiquitious  overalls — the  presence  of  which  in  any  place, 
along  with  tin-can  goods,  is  a  sure  sign  that  it  has  been  hit 
by  civilization^ — can  now  be  had  for  the  three-year-olds  as 
well  as  for  the  grown-ups.     In  1880  there  were  few  if  any 

1  In  July  191 5  the  owner  of  the  plant  which  handles  both  roe  and 
vegetables,  told  me  that  in  1914  he  ran  about  ten  days  with  x>eas,  six 
weeks  with  tomatoes,  and  with  herring-roe  in  191 5,  a  day  and  a  half. 
Much  of  this  time,  however,  he  was  not  running  full  capacity. 


1 19]  MANUFACTURING  IN  1915  j  j^ 

overalls,  and  in  the  nineties  they  were  like  certain  "shows" 
at  county  fairs — "  for  men  only."  Few  are  likely  to  for- 
get the  keen  sense  of  delight  they  experienced  when  at  the 
age  of  fifteen  or  sixteen  they  slid  into  their  first  suit.  No 
military  or  naval  officer  ever  donned  his  first  stripes  with 
greater  pride  than  did  these  lads  their  first  dollar  suits  of 
blue  overalls  and  jump-jackets.  It  was  a  proclamation  to 
the  world  that  they  at  least  thought  they  had  "  arrived." 

The  manufacture  of  household  and  kitchen  furniture 
has  now  almost  entirely  left  the  domesitic  stage;  practically 
all  furnishings  now  being  acquired,  except  a  few  tables  and 
some  bed  clothing,  are  bought  from  the  stores,  which  in 
turn  receive  them  from  the  factories.  With  farming  ma- 
chinery it  is  the  same  story  over  again.  Except  carts,  cart- 
wheels, and  cart-saddles,  nearly  all  farm  tools  and  imple- 
ments are  factory-made.  As  for  local  coopering  shops,  they 
remain  largely  as  a  memory  only.  In  the  rdatter  of  foods 
the  showing  is  much  better.  The  more  substantial  farm- 
ers— almost  all  farm  owners — still  put  up  their  own  meat, 
lard,  and  fish,  and  have  their  own  corn-meal  ground.  A 
considerable  amount  of  home-canning  also  is  being  done, 
a  practice  not  known  in  1880.  Nearly  all  good  housewives 
now  try  to  put  up  some  fruit  each  year.  Not  nearly  so 
much  of  this  is  done  as  should  be,  but  a  beginning  has  been 
made,  and  during  the  past  three  or  four  years  some  have 
canned  a  few  vegetables.  The  people  now  buy  all  their 
flour  (notwithstanding  the  fact  that  they  consume  five  or 
six  times  as  much  per  capita  as  in  1880)  and  most  of  their 
soap,  though  many  of  the  older  housekeepers  still  make 
their  own  laundry  and  kitchen  soap.  Nearly  all  the  yeopon 
bushes  have  been  hoed  up,  and  the  tea  now  drunk  is  usu- 
ally Lipton's,  or  some  other  foreign  brand  costing  from 
thirty  to  seventy  cents  a  pound,  though  not  one  whit  better 
than  the  yeopon,  which  each  family  formerly  cured  for  it- 


120  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [120 

self,  or  else  bought  from  a  neighbor  at  thirty  or  forty  cents 
a  bushel  (a  bushel  being  sufficient  to  supply  a  big  family 
from  six  to  eight  months,  even  though  each  member  im- 
bibed quite  freely  twice  daily). 

Much  of  the  construction  material  for  dwellings,  out- 
buildings, and  fencing  now  comes  from  factories.  All  of 
the  brick  and  much  of  the  roofing  are  factory-made. 
Probably  forty  per  cent  of  both  dwellings  and  out-buildings 
put  up  within  the  past  two  years  have  been  covered  with 
paper,  slate,  or  tin — all  factory  stuff.  When  shingles  have 
been  used  they  have  been  mostly  sawed  ones  rather  than  the 
hand-drawn  article  of  other  days.  Formerly  most  out- 
buildings were  covered  with  boards.  To  make  these,  first- 
class  timber  is  required.  Since  this  has  nearly  all  been 
cut,  few,  if  any,  boards  are  now  being  riven.  All  heavy 
timbers  formerly  were  hewed,  but  now  they  are  sawed,  and 
all  dressing,  beading,  tonguing,  and  grooving  are  done  by 
machinery.  The  carpenter  finds  comparatively  little  use 
for  his  plane  any  more.  In  fact  he  is  fast  approaching  the 
point  where  he  is  a  mere  assembler  of  materials  already 
prepared  for  him.  Nearly  all  dwelling  doors,  mouldings, 
and  trimming  are  machine  products.  Gardens  are  no 
longer  enclosed  with  wattled  pales,  but  with  poultry  wire, 
and  probably  sixty  per  cent  of  the  farm  fences  are  woven 
wire,  while  iron  posts  are  already  beginning  to  replace  the 
wooden  ones. 

If  civilization  means  marketing  what  you  make  and  buy- 
ing what  you  use,  a  survey  of  the  past  thirty-five  years 
would  seem  to  indicate  that  the  people  of  Chowan  are  well 
on  the  way  to  that  goal. 


CHAPTER  X 

Lumbering 

lumber  situation  in  1880 

In  1880  practically  the  whole  county,  except  the  culti- 
vated land  and  the  retimbered  old  fields,  was  in  virgin  for- 
est. A  good  part  of  the  timber  cut  for  home  use  was  cut 
on  land  soon  to  be  cleared,  and  if  it  had  not  been,  the 
annual  growth  was  more  than  equal  to  the  small  annual 
cut  for  local  purposes.  Most  landowners  had  more  timber 
than  they  thought  they  could  ever  utilize,  and  since  it  had 
little  or  no  market  value,  they  ascribed  little  value  to  it. 
Thousands  of  feet  were  heaped  up  and  burned  for  no  other 
purpose  than  to  get  it  off  the  land  that  was  to  be  brought  un- 
der cultivation.^  Farmers  would  gladly  have  given  away 
the  timber  on  land  which  they  intended  tO'  clear,  simply  to 
get  rid  of  it. 

HUMBUGGING   TIMBER    OWNERS 

When  the  railroads  were  projected,  lumber  men  asso- 
ciated with  the  railroad  companies  came  through  and 
bought  up  for  almost  nothing  the  majority  of  the  timber 
lying  near  the  proposed  tracks.  Conditions  being  as  stated 
in  the  previous  paragraph,  it  was  easy  for  the  buyers  to 
make  their  own  tenns.  They  paid  less  than  twenty-five 
cents  a  thousand  feet  (board  measure)  for  much  timber 
that  now,  only  thirty  years  afterwards,  would  sell  for  from 
$5  to  $6  a  thousand,  and  was  worth  then  from  $1.50  to  $2, 

1  Cf.  supra,  pp.  42,  43. 
121]  121 


122  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [122 

according  to  the  selling  price  of  lumber  in  the  open  market. 
They  stipulated  in  their  contracts  that  they  were  to  have 
free  right-of-way  anywhere  they  chose  to  run  across  a 
man's  land,  all  the  free  timber  they  needed  for  construction 
purposes,  and  the  privilege  to  cut  the  timber  whenever  they 
pleased.  Since  much  of  the  timber  was  bought  by  the  acre, 
this  last  clause  was  of  much  value.  Some  of  the  lumber 
was  not  cut  for  several  years  after  it  was  bought,  and  by 
the  time  it  was  cut  the  natural  increase  during  the  interven- 
ing years  was  of  more  value  than  the  purchase  price  agreed 
upon.  Only  part  of  the  price  was  paid  when  the  timber 
was  bought. 

The  first  railroad  (Norfolk  &  Southern)  in  the  county 
was  opened  for  business  in  1881,  and  the  second  (Suffolk 
&  Carolina)  reached  the  county  in  1887.  With  the  rail- 
roads came  in  the  big  lumber  companies,  and  in  ten  or 
twelve  years  they  had  cut  over  most  of  the  best  timber  that 
was  easily  reached.  They  were  eager  tO'  make  the  biggest 
possible  profit  in  the  shortest  possible  time,  and  as  they  had 
paid  so  little  for  the  timber  they  hardly  had  to  consider 
this  item,  of  cost  at  all.  Even  when^  they  bought  it  by  the 
acre,  it  paid  them  to  cut  only  the  best,  and  then  move  on 
to  other  virgin  stands. 

LOCAL  OPERATORS 

Their  Disadvantages. — In  the  wake  of  the  big  companies 
followed  numerous  small  operators,  principally  natives. 
However,  the  timber  owners  by  this  time  had  begun  to  wake 
up  and  so  these  small  operators  had  to  pay  something  like 
market  value  for  what  they  cut,  usually  from  four  to  eight 
times  the  amount  paid  by  the  companies  whO'  bought  early. 
Not  only  that,  but  most  of  the  timjber  they  bought  was  either 
a  considerable  distance  from  the  railroads,  or  else  on  land 
that  previously  had  been  cut  over  by  the  big  firms.     The 


123]  LUMBERING  1 23 

great  majority  of  them  had  little  capital,  and  so  were  neither 
able  to  put  in  tramways  tO'  reach  the  timber,  nor  able  to 
buy  large  enough  bodies  of  timber  to  make  it  pay  to  put  in 
tramways.  The  result  was  they  had  either  to  "  scrap  " 
after  the  big  operators  (handle  inferior  stuff  which  they 
had  refused),  or  else  haul  their  timber  a  long  distance. 

At  times  there  were  probably  fifty  or  sixly  people  in  the 
county  owning  some  logging  apparatus,  and  from  five  to 
eight  hundred  men  all  told  engaged  in  cutting  and  hauling 
limiber  and  ties.  Many  of  these  loggers  had  less  than  a 
hundred  dollars  worth  of  equipm'ent.  A  goodly  number 
started  with  only  one  yoke  of  small  oxen,  or  of  cheap  horses 
or  mules.  Some  few  of  these  prospered  and  eventually  be- 
came fair-sized  operators,  but  many  did  not.  The  "little 
fellows"  were  at  the  mercy  of  the  railroad  companies,  who 
showed  much  favoritism  in  sending  out  cars.  After  one 
had  worked  and  strained  for  weeks  with  his  one  little  yoke 
of  oxen,  and  pulled  several  thousand  feet  of  timber  to  the 
railroad  tracks,  it  frequently  would  lie  there  till  it  was 
damaged  from  a  third  to  a  half  of  its  value  before  the  com- 
pany would  send  cars  on  which  to*  load  it.  Since  the  oper- 
ator did  not  know  enough  to  make  the  company  pay  for  the 
damage,  he  simply  suffered  it  himself.  In  this  way  many 
lost  the  little  they  had  previously  made  either  logging  or 
otherwise. 

Effect  on  Agriculture. — Logging  became  very  popular. 
Almost  everybody  for  hire  preferred  working  in  the  woods 
to  working  on  the  farm.  In  fact  it  soon  began  to  be  diffi- 
cult to  hire  farm  labor,  while  at  the  same  time  people  were 
alrriost  begging  to  be  hired  for  the  log  woods.  Accompany- 
ing the  growing  difficulty  of  obtaining  farm  labor  was  a 
slump  in  cotton  prices.^     These  two  facts,  taken  in  con- 

iFrom  1880  to  1890  "middling  staple"   (the  best  grade  of  cotton 
produced  here)  averaged  on  the  wholesale  markets  well  over  ten  cents 


124  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [124 

nection  with  the  fact  that  the  lumber  men  seemed  to  be  mak- 
ing more  money  than  any  other  set  of  people,  caused  many 
farmers,  who,  as  a  matter  of  course,  knew  nothing  at  all 
about  lumbering,  to  start  logging  as  a  side  line  to  their 
farming.  This  all  too  frequently  meant  the  neglect  of  their 
farming  interests. 

Local  Saw-mills. — For  twenty  years  or  more  the  vast  ma- 
jority of  timber  cut  was  shipped  out  of  the  county  as  logs, 
and  so  the  money  paid  for  working  it  up  went  to  those 
outside  of  the  locality.  Only  two  big  saw-mills  have  ever 
been  located  in  the  county — one  at  Montrose  and  one  at 
Edenton.  The  first  ran  only  a  few  years.  The  second 
began  operations  in  1888  and  is  still  in  service.  The 
greater  part  of  the  timber  it  has  handled,  however,  has  come 
from  outside  the  county.  Since  the  cutting  of  most  of  the 
best  timber,  a  few  mills  sawing  from  three  to  eight  thous- 
and feet  a  day  have  been  put  down  at  various  places  in  the 
county.  But  none  of  these  run  regularly,  and  besides,  they 
saw  principally  for  home  consumption.  At  present,  of  the 
fifteen  mills  in  the  county,  only  five  ship  any  of  their  pro- 
duct whatever.^ 

VARIETY  AND  DISPOSITION  OF  TIMBER  PRODUCTS 

The  principal  comimercial  timber  was  gum,  cypress, 
poplar,  oak,  and  pine.     From  the  mill-ponds  ^  and  swamps 

a  pound.  In  1890  it  was  selling  above  eleven  cents,  while  the  next  year 
it  was  bringing  about  eight  and  six-tenths  cents.  This  downward 
trend  continued  for  some  eight  years,  and  during  part  of  the  time  many 
farmers  sold  cotton  below  five  cents.  Cf.  House  Documents,  vol.  xxxix, 
p.  76,  no.  15,  parts  1-3,  "  Commerce  and  Finance."  July- September, 
1902,  57th  Congress,  2d  Session,  1902-3.  Cf.  also,  U.  S.  Bureau  of 
Labor  Statistics,  Bulletin  149  (whole  number),  "Wholesale  Price 
Series,"  no.  2,  p.  83. 
1  Cf.  supra,  pp.  99,  100. 
The  topography  of  the  county  being  comparatively  level  (cf.  supra, 
p.  17,)  wherever  a  water-mill  was  erected  the  damming  of  the  stream 


125]  LUMBERING  I25 

came  the  first  two.  The  gum  was  sent  to  the  butter-dish, 
crate,  barrel  and  basket  factories.  The  larger  cypress  tim- 
ber found  its  way  to  the  shingle  mills,  while  from  the 
smaller  trees,  railroad  ties  were  cut  and  hewn.  Around 
the  edges  of  swamps  and  in  moist  places  in  general,  grew  the 
poplar  timber.  This  went  tO'  the  veneering  mills,  furniture 
factories  ,and  butter-dish  factories.  Only  a  very  little  oak 
was  shipped  except  some  that  was  made  intO'  cross-ties. 
Most  of  what  merchantable  oak  there  had  been  in  the  county 
had  been  made  into  staves  in  earlier  times.  The  prin- 
cipal timber  was  yellow  pine,  which  grew  all  over  the  county 
except  in  the  swamps  and  mill-ponds.  Both  the  quantity 
and  value  of  all  other  varieties  of  mill  timber  was  small  in 
comparison  to  pine.  It  was  cut  into  lumber  for  general 
building  purposes. 

TIMBER    SITUATION    IN    I915 

Since  the  coming  of  the  railroads  into  the  county,  prac- 
tically all  the  forest  has  been  cut  over,  much  of  it  from  two 
to  four  times,  and  so  today  there  is  very  little  first-growth 
timber  standing.  In  fact  there  is  comparatively  little  mill 
timber  of  any  sort.  After  most  of  this  had  been  cut,  cross- 
tie  "  getters  "  went  through  and  made  ties  out  of  the  hearts  ^ 

to  get  sufficient  power  caused  water  to  pond  up  over  a  considerable 
area.  Within  the  area  over  which  the  water  stood  constantly  at  a 
depth  of  two  feet  or  more,  all  the  trees  except  cypress  died.  Along 
the  margin  of  the  ponds  where  there  was  sometimes  water  and 
sometimes  none,  the  flora  was  of  the  swamp  varieties. 

1  As  is  well  known,  pine  sap  when  exposed  to  the  weather  soon 
rots,  but  good  heart  will  last  for  years;  in  fact  the  best  pine  heart 
hardly  rots  at  all,  but  rather,  just  gradually  weathers  away.  Much  of 
the  first-growth  pine  had  splendid  heart,  both  as  to  size  and  quality. 
The  lumbermen  who  came  through  first  not  only  cut  the  best  trees,  but 
they  carried  away  only  the  best  portion  of  those  they  did  cut,  often 
leaving  a  large  part  of  the  top  end  in  the  woods.  Nearly  all  that  was 
not  practically  clear  of  knots  was  left.  In  a  few  years  the  sap  rotted 
away  leaving  the  best  hearts  as  good  as  ever. 


126  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [126 

of  the  pine  tops  left  by  the  lumbermen.  Everything  has 
been  cut  so  close  on  many  tracts  of  land  that  there  is  now 
not  enough  tim}>er  left  to  furnish  lumber  for  necessary 
building.  Not  a  few  landowners  are  even  without  sufficient 
timber  for  fence  posts  unless  they  use  sap  posts,  which  get 
very  "  tender  "  (weak)  in  one  year's  time,  and  rot  off  in  the 
course  of  two.  The  policy  followed  by  many  serves  to  in- 
tensify the  scarcity.  No  longer  possessing  any  mill  timber 
for  market,  they  are  now  selling  oflf  all  the  pine  trees  (the 
only  fast-growing  timber  trees  in  this  section)  that  will 
make  a  stick  of  piling  twenty-six  feet  long,  measuring  six 
inches  in  diameter  at  the  top.  They  appear  to  have  little 
regard  for  posterity.  In  fact  their  attitude  seems  to  be 
that  of  Louis  XIV  when  he  said,  "After  us,  the  deluge," 
presuming  they  think  that  far  ahead,  which,  however,  is 
not  very  probable. 


CHAPTER  XI 

Communication,  Transportation,  and  Commerce  in 

1880 

PREREQUISITIES    OF    COMMERCE 

Among  the  prerequisites  of  commerce  are  diversity  of 
natural  resources,  division  of  labor,  accumulation  of  stock, 
and  ways  and  means  of  communication  and  transport. 
Aside  from  the  advantages  for  fishing  and  transportation 
offered  by  the  Chowan  River  and  the  Albemarle  Sound,  the 
natural  resources,  while  differing  ini  quality  in  different  sec- 
tions, were  quite  the  same  in  variety  throughout  the  county. 
As  has  been  previously  noted,  there  was  comparatively  little 
division  of  labor,  if  the  family  be  reckoned  as  the  unit  of 
production.  Under  these  conditions,  the  most  of  whatever 
trade  there  was,  was  necessarily  with  people  beyond  the 
county's  borders. 

Possessing  an  accumulated  stock,  or  surplus  of  goods, 
which  one  is  willing  to  exchange,  and  possessing  the  in>- 
formation  as  to  who  has  other  goods  he  is  willing  to  ex- 
change in  return,  the  next  question  the  prospective  trader 
must  consider  is  that  of  transportation ;  for  the  comparative 
ease  or  difficulty  of  transportation  largely  determines,  or  at 
least  to  a  considerable  degree  limits,  the  class  of  goods  which 
will  be  traded  in.  If  the  route  is  long  or  difificult,  only  those 
products  of  small  bulk  and  weight  in  proportion  to  value 
can  bear  the  expense  of  carriage;  and  if  the  time  enroute  is; 
considerable,  only  such  goods  as  do  not  rapidly  deteriorate 
will  gO'  to  market.  Furthermore,  in  order  to  obtain  the 
largest  returns  it  is  not  enough  merely  to  know  that  certain 
127]  127 


128  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [128 

goods  can  usually  be  exchanged  at  a  certain  place  for  some 
value  or  other;  one  needs  to  know,  in  addition,  the  time 
when  the  exchange  can  take  place  to  the  best  advantage. 
For  this,  quick  and  trustworthy  means  of  communication 
are  necessary. 

MEANS  OF  COMMUNICATION 

Post-office. — ^What  were  the  means  of  communication  in 
1880?  Including  Edenton,  there  were  six  post-offices  in  the 
county.  Edenton  was  served  both  by  steamers  and  by  stage- 
coach, one  or  two  of  the  other  post-offices  were  served  by 
steamers,  and  the  remaining  ones  were  on  star  routes. 
Many  people  were  from  five  to-  ten  miles  from  any  office, 
and  frequently  received  their  mail  not  oftener  than  two  or 
three  times  a  month.  There  were  others  who  received  no 
mail  at  all ;  many  a  one  died  at  a  ripe  old  age  without  hav- 
ing received  a  piece  of  mail  during  his  entire  life. 

Telegraph.- — The  county  was  first  reached  by  telegraph  in 
1879  (the  year  just  previous  to  the  beginning  of  the  period 
covered  by  this  treatise) .  The  only  station  on  the  line  was 
at  Edenton.  This  was  comparatively  little  used  at  first,  and 
affected  the  people  in  the  upper  end  of  the  county  hardly 
at  all. 

Travelers  and  Traders. — The  only  remaining  means  of 
communication  was  through  travelers  and  traders.  The  in- 
formation that  many  of  the  people  in  the  country  districts 
secured  relative  to  prices  of  produce  was  principally  that 
furnished  by  the  class  of  traders  known  as  "  carters."  ^ 
Since  it  was  to  their  advantage  that  the  people  from  whom 
they  bought  should  think  produce  cheap,  the  information 
they  gave  out  in  regard  to  market  ^  prices  was  not  always 

1  Cf.  infra,  pp.  135-7. 

2  The  market  referred  to  in  this  treatise  is  always  the  Norfolk  mar- 
ket, unless  otherwise  stated.  This  was  the  nearest  and  most  accessible 
market  that  was  at  all  sensitive  to  world,  or  even  national,  conditions. 


129]    COMMUNICATION,  TRANSPORTATION,  IN  1880       129 

reliable.  The  merchants  who  bought  country  produce  had 
the  same  reason  for  keeping  the  people  in  the  dark  concern- 
ing prices  as  did  the  carters.  Thus  it  was  that  the  producers 
knew  very  little  about  the  market  value  of  their  products. 
It  was  probably  because  of  these  conditions  that  for  many 
things  there  had  come  to  be  established  certain  customary 
prices  which  changed  but  little  from  season  to  season,  or 
from  year  to  year,  regardless  of  market  fluctuations. 

TRANSPORTATION 

Railroads. — As  measured  by  present-day  standards,  trans- 
portation facilities  were  very  inadequate.  In  1880  the  near- 
est railroad  shipping  point  was  Suffolk,  Va.,  thirty  odd 
miles  from  the  upper  end  of  the  county,  and  some  forty 
miles  further  from  the  extreme  southeastern  end.^ 

Waterways. — The  greater  part  of  the  North  Carolina 
coast  is  fringed  with  a  chain  of  long,  narrow,  sandy  islands 
called  "  the  banks."  These  vary  in  width  from  a  few 
yards  to  two  miles,  and  are  separated  from  the  mainland 
by  large  bodies  of  water  known  as  "  sounds."  Connecting 
the  sounds  with  the  ocean  are  several  inlets,  some  of  which 
at  various  times  have  been  navigable  for  small  boats.  Until 
the  digging  of  the  canals  it  was  through  these  inlets  that 
the  sea-going  commerce  of  the  whole  Albemarle  region  had 
to  pass. 

Chowan  has  enjoyed  more  or  less  water  transportation 
ever  since  the  beginning  of  the  first  white  settlements,  but  as 
far  back  as  recorded  history  goes  the  inlets  have  been  shal- 
low, have  been  constantly  filling  up,  and  their  channels  con- 
stantly shifting:  hence  their  navigation  has  always  been 
rather  precarious   even   for  small   craft.     Some  of   them 

^  Those  in  the  lower  end  of  the  county  were  about  as  near  to  Nor- 
folk as  they  were  to  Suffolk. 


I^O  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [j^o 

have  filled  up  entirely,  and  where  once  the  sound  connected 
with  the  sea,  houses  now  stand.  At  no  time  since  Chowan 
was  settled  has  there  been  more  than  a  few  feet  of  water 
in  any  of  them.  Thus  all  except  light-draft  vessels,  those 
drawing  not  over  six  or  eight  feet  of  water,  have  been  pre- 
cluded from  coming  in  at  all.^  No  sea-going  vessel  has 
traded  with  Edenton  since  the  Civil  War.* 

Once  inside  the  Albemarle  Sound  the  conditions  for  navi- 
gating it  and  the  rivers  emptying  into  it  have  always  been 
fairly  good  for  small  craft.  The  products  of  the  surround- 
ing territory,  however,  were,  and  continue  to  be,  quite 
similar;  hence  there  has  been  little  occasion  for  exchange 
with  the  producers  of  neighboring  counties.  Because  of 
these  facts — lack  of  good  inlets  to  the  sea  and  the  similarity 
of  products  of  the  adjacent  country — the  possession  of  a 
rather  elaborate  system  of  inland  waterways  has  been  of 
comparatively  little  value  to  the  county.  What  the  people 
of  Chowan  wanted  were  means  of  transport  to  outside  mar- 
kets where  they  could  trade  the  wares  of  which  they  had  a 
surplus  for  those  they  lacked.  The  Dismal  Swamp  Canal 
and  the  Albemarle  and  Chesapeake  Canal  offered  outlets  to 
world  marts,  but  the  former  was  only  six  feet  deep  and  the 
latter  seven-and-a-half,  hence  none  but  light-draft  boats 
could  be  accommodated.* 

Wagon  Roads. — In  the  summer  time  the  roads  of  the  clay 
sections,  which  compose  about  half  the  county,  were  usu- 

^  C.  W.  Weaver,  Internal  Improvement  in  North  Carolina  Previous 
to  i860,  Johns  Hopkins  University  Studies,  vol.  xxi,  pp.  144-5. 

"  Internal  Improvements  in  North  Carolina,"  North  American  Re- 
view, vol.  12,  pp.  22-28. 

Hints  on  the  Internal  Improvement  of  North  Carolina  (New  York, 
1854),  pp.  6-8. 

^Information  furnished  by  Richard  Dillard,  who  has  been  port  doc- 
tor since  1881. 

^Bureau  of  the  Census  Report  (1880),  vol.  iv,  p.  753, 


131  ]    COMMUNICATION,  TRANSPORTATION,  IN  1880       131 

ally  fair  for  dirt  roads  to  which  little  attention  was  given, 
but  in  winter  they  frequently  became  so  bad  that  an  empty 
cart  was  itself  almost  a  load.  The  roads  of  the  sandy  sec- 
tions were  heavy  most  of  the  time,  both  winter  and  summer. 
The  roads  in  all  parts  of  the  county  could  have  been  made 
pretty  good  as  dirt  roads  go,  and  with  comparatively  little 
expense,  but  they  were  worked,  or  rather  neglected,  by  that 
time-honored,  unjust,  inefficient  plan  of  requiring  all  able- 
bodied  males  between  the  ages  of  eighteen  and  forty-five  liv- 
ing on  a  given  road,  or  section  of  it,  to  put  in  on  it  an  equal 
number  of  days  each  year.  Each  had  an  overseer  who 
decided  how  many  days,  within  a  maximum  limit,^  it 
should  be  worked.  Some  overseers  would  spend  a  half 
day  annually  on  their  allotments,  while  others  would  work 
five  or  six  days  on  theirs.  The  work,  however,  was  never 
arduous.  The  men  went  late,  quit  early,  and  worked  light 
while  there,  some  of  them  doing  practically  nothing  except 
talk.    In  fact  the  whole  affair  was  largely  a  social  gathering. 

Instead  of  the  roads  being  graded  up  in  the  middle  so 
that  the  water  would  "  sheet  off,"  they  not  infrequently 
were  lower  in  the  middle  than  anywhere  else.  What  little 
work  was  done,  was  done  in  the  fall  of  the  year,  hence  the 
dirt  thrown  in  the  roads  would  not  have  time  to  harden 
before  the  winter-freezes,  with  the  result  that  for  that  season 
they  were  often  worse  than  if  they  had  not  been  touched. 
The  sandy  roads  were  never  clayed,  nor  the  clay  roads  ever 
sanded.  This  could  have  been  done  at  small  cost,  since  the 
different  types  of  soil  are  usually  so  close  tO'  each  other  that 
the  haul  is  short. 

In  winter  and  spring  considerable  portions  of  the  roads 

*  This  limit  was  rarely  ever  reached,  though  sometimes  an  overseer 
who  had  been  angered  by  the  men  would  warn  them  out  the  full  num- 
ber of  days  simply  to  "get  back  at  them." 


J22  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [1^2 

between  Chowan  and  Norfolk  were  even  worse  than  those 
in  Chowan.  Not  only  were  they  tough  and  full  of  great 
holes,  but  on  the  road  usually  traveled  by  those  going  from 
the  upper  part  of  the  county  to  Norfolk  there  were  no  less 
than  four  swamps  which  had  to  be  forded.  During  wet 
spells  and  after  big  rains  the  water  often  rose  so  high  in 
them  that  it  came  up  into  one's  cart.  At  times  these  swamps 
were  so  deep  that  crossing  was  dangerous,  and  when  frozen 
over,  it  was  still  more  hazardous.  At  high-water  one  of 
them  was  some  four  hundred  yards  long. 

At  this  time  the  majority  of  the  ducks  and  chickens  sold 
were  carted  to  Norfolk  alive.  In  loading  they  were  put  in 
a  coop  and  suspended  from  beneath  the  cart.  Except  dur- 
ing dry  times  there  was  nearly  always  enough  water  in  some 
of  the  swamps  to  give  them  a  good  wetting,  and,  when  the 
swamps  were  full  of  water,  they  would  be  immersed  for 
such  a  long  time  that  it  was  a  common  occurrence  for  sev- 
eral of  them  to  drown.  In  winter  it  was  especially  hard 
on  chickens,  for  those  that  did  not  drown  would  nearly 
freeze  after  getting  wet  all  over. 

Service. — In  1880  there  were  two  transport  lines  between 
Edenton  and  Norfolk,  each  maintaining  a  regular  tri-weekly 
service.  One  was  a  stage  via  Elizabeth  City,  carrying 
mail  and  passengers  only.  The  other  was  a  combined  rail 
and  steamer  route,  handling  mail,  passengers,  and  freight. 
This  latter  route  was  via  Franklin,  Va.  A  line  of  steam- 
ers plying  on  the  Chowan  and  Black  Water  Rivers  between 
Edenton  and  Franklin  connected  at  Franklin  with  the  Sea- 
board and  Roanoke  railroad,  running  between  Weldon, 
N.  C,  on  the  Roanoke  river,  and  Portsmouth,  Va.^  In 
addition,  there  were  irregular  steamers  and  sailing  vessels 

*  Portsmouth  and  Norfolk  were  then  as  now,  practically  one  city, 
there  being  ferry  service  back  and  forth  between  the  two  places  every 
few  minutes. 


133]    COMMUNICATION,  TRANSPORTATION,  IN  1880      133 

from  Edenton  and  other  points  along  the  county's  coast- 
line to  Norfolk  and  Baltimore  via  the  afore-mentioned 
canals.  Vessels  even  went  up  some  of  the  small  creeks. 
Another  means  of  transportation — that  of  private  convey- 
ance— played  an  important  role,  particularly  in  the  upper 
end  of  the  county.  Much  of  the  produce  marketed  from 
this  section,  and  a  considerable  number  of  fresh  herring 
from  the  Chowan  River  and  Albemarle  Sound,  went  to 
market  by  horse  and  cart. 

Some  little  produce  was  carried  to  Suffolk,  Va.,  tho 
the  usual  market  was  Norfolk,  which  by  the  country  road 
ranged  from  60  to  80  miles  from  different  parts  of  the 
county.^  The  hauling  thru  the  country  was  practically 
all  done  with  one-horse  teams  carrying  from  four  hundred 
to  a  thousand  pounds  to  the  load,  the  size  of  the  load  de- 
pending upon  the  condition  of  the  roads  and  the  size  of  the 
team.    The  round  trip  required  from  three  days  to  a  week.* 

Transportation  to  and  from  Chowan,  whether  by  water, 
water  and  rail,  or  horse  and  cart,  was  slow  at  best,  and 
rather  expensive,  except  for  timber  products,  salt,  salt  fish, 
cotton,  and  such  other  goods  as  could  stand  a  long,  uncertain 
trip  by  sail  without  serious  damage. 

COMMERCE 

Articles  Traded  In. — The  principal  articles  traded  in 
were  as  follows:  outgoing — timber  products,  fish,  melons, 

^  Those  in  the  lower  end  went  by  a  different  route  from  that  taken 
by  those  in  the  upper  end.  Hence  the  difference  in  the  distances  from 
Norfolk  to  the  upper  end  and  from  Norfolk  to  the  lower  end,  was  not 
the  distance  from  one  end  of  the  county  to  the  other. 

2  By  driving  both  night  and  day,  those  in  the  upper  end  of  the  county 
could  make  the  trip,  stand  market,  and  return,  all  in  three  days  and 
two  nights.  If  one  had  a  horse  that  was  used  to  going  to  Norfolk  and 
would  keep  the  track,  he  could  lie  back  and  sleep,  but  it  was  killing  to 
the  horse  to  have  to  travel  both  day  and  night. 


J 24  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [134 

cotton,  pork,  bacon,  peas,  eggs,  poultry,  grapes,  huckle- 
berries and  cattle;  incoming — dry-goods,  shoes,  hats,  no- 
tions, hardware,  confectionery,  tobacco,  and  snuff.  The 
cattle  were  driven  to  market,  while  the  grapes  and  huckle- 
berries, most  of  the  eggs,  poultry,  pork  and  bacon,  and  some 
of  the  fish,  were  hauled  by  the  carters.  The  greater  por- 
tion of  the  remainder  of  the  outgoing  products  and  the 
major  portion  of  the  incoming  were  shipped.  In  the 
upper  end  of  the  county,  however,  quite  a  few  goods  were 
brought  in  by  the  carters. 

Country  Merchants. — There  were  two  classes  of  middle- 
men— ^the  "  merchant  "  and  the  "  carter."  Each  individual 
merchant  kept  a  small  stock  of  the  goods  most  in  demand 
by  his  neighbors.  His  stock  consisted  of  certain  varieties 
of  hardware,  drugs,  notions,  dry-goods,  shoes,  hats, 
groceries,  tobacco,  snuff,  and  confectionery.  This  carry- 
ing of  a  general  line  of  merchandise  was  characteristic  to 
a  greater  or  less  degree  of  all  country  merchants,  tho  in 
Edenton  there  were  some  merchants  with  special  lines.  In 
reality  each  country  merchant  kept  a  minature  department 
store,  tho  the  assortment  was  necessarily  meagre,  since 
the  biggest  of  the  merchants  carried  but  a  few  hundred  dol- 
lars worth  of  goods.  For  days,  and  even  weeks,  at  a  time, 
many  of  them  would  be  out  of  the  articles  most  frequently 
sold. 

A  goodly  portion  of  the  merchant's  business  was  barter, 
or  the  trading  of  "  store  "  goods  for  farm  products.  He 
bought  tallow,  beeswax,  poultry,  eggs,  bacon,  cotton,  com, 
peas,  wood  ashes,  rags,  and  such  home-manufactures  as 
socks,  tubs,  chairs,  bread-trays,  horse  collars,  hames,  axe 
helves,  and  cart-saddles.  He  took  in  comparatively  little 
actual  cash  at  any  time,  and  hardly  any  at  all  except  in  the 
fall  of  the  year.    From  sixty  to  seventy-five  per  cent  of  the 


135]    COMMUNICATION,  TRANSPORTATION,  IN  1880      i^^ 

mercantile  business  was  done  on  a  time  basis,  payment  be- 
ing made  in  the  fall.  Many  a  one  who  paid  up  in  Novem- 
ber or  December  would  again  be  trading  on  time  by  Febru- 
ary. Numerous  accounts  and  parts  of  accounts  were  car- 
ried over  from  one  year  to  another.  In  poor  crop  years  this 
was  especially  prevalent.  Under  such  conditions  the  mer- 
chants were  forced  to  buy  on  time,  which  meant  high  prices 
both  to  themselves  and  to  their  customers,  even  to  those  who 
paid  cash. 

Transactions  were  small.  Merchants  made  many  a  deal, 
trading  manufactured  goods  for  farm  produce,  in  which  the 
total  values  involved  on  both  sides  did  not  exceed  three 
or  four  cents.  People  frequently  would  walk  a  mile  or 
two  to  a  store  for  the  express  purpose  of  buying  less  than 
five  cents  worth  of  goods.  They  would  bring  as  little  as 
a  pound  or  two  of  seed  cotton,  one  or  two  quarts  of  corn, 
a  gallon  or  two  of  ashes,  a  pound  or  two  of  old  rags,  or 
one  or  two  eggs.  If  the  value  of  the  produce  a  person 
brought  in  amounted  to  as  much  as  six  or  eight  cents,  it 
was  nothing  out  of  the  ordinary  for  him  to  make  four  or 
five  purchases,  probably  one  or  two  cents  worth  of  tobacco, 
and  a  like  amount  of  snuff,  of  candy,  and  of  sugar.  Much 
of  the  small  stuff,  like  that  mentioned  above,  which  was 
sold  during  the  spring  and  summer  months  went  for  snuff 
and  tobacco.  Many  people  seldom  went  to  the  store  without 
buying  these  articles.  Their  use  was  common  among  a 
large  body  of  the  people,  both  young  and  old.  Some  few 
formed  the  tobacco  habit  so  early  in  life  that  they  could 
not  even  remember  the  time. 

Carters. — The  class  of  middlemen  known  as  carters  has 
already  been  referred  to.     They  were  both  freighters  and 

^  The  proportion  here  given  is  based  on  interviews  with  various  mer- 
chants in  the  county. 


j^g  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [1^6 

traders,  who  dealt  in  country  produce  destined  for  outside 
markets.  Some  of  this  they  obtained  from  the  merchants 
who  had  collected  it  in  exchange  for  "  store ''  goods,  but 
they  probably  secured  the  larger  portion  direct  from  the 
producers.  They  drove  around  thru  the  country  and 
bought  up  whatever  marketable  stuff  they  could  find  for 
sale.  When  one  had  gathered  a  load,  he  packed  his  cart, 
drove  to  Norfolk,  and  there  in  the  open  market-place  sold 
to  the  consumer  direct.^ 

Many  of  the  farmer  folk  preferred  selling  to  the  carters 
rather  than  to  the  merchants,  because  they  could  usually  get 
about  as  much  in  cash  from  the  carter  as  they  could  in 
"  trade  '*  from  the  merchant,  and  with  cash  they  could  buy 
cheaper.  Most  merchants  would  not  pay  cash  for  produce, 
because  their  profits  were  expected  largely  from  the  goods 
they  sold  to  the  farmers  rather  than  from  those  they  bought 
of  them.  Of  course,  they  frequently  made  on  both  ends 
of  the  deal,  but  they  figured  principally  on  the  merchandise 
they  bought  to  be  sold.  The  merchant  sold  on  a  compara- 
tively staple  market;  that  is,  when  he  bought  his  goods  he 
knew  about  what  he  was  going  to  sell  them  for.  Not  so 
with  the  carter;  his  selling  market  was  ever  fluctuating, 
hence  he  never  knew  what  he  was  going  to  get  for  the  pro- 
duce he  was  buying.  This  was  one  of  the  factors  which 
tended  to  make  him  buy  everything  as  low  as  he  could,  if 
the  article  was  one  with  no  standardized  price.  For  in- 
stance, in  buying  an  old  lady's  spring  chickens  there  was  no 
price  standard,  except  in  so  far  as  the  old  lady  judged  they 

*Some  preferred  to  "lump"  (wholesale)  all  or  part  of  their  loads  to 
the  huxters  (who  stayed  on  the  market  all  the  time)  to  retailing  it 
themselves.  This  saved  them  some  trouble,  but  usually  brought  them 
in  less  money.  However,  where  one  had  a  whole  load  of  one  product, 
for  instance  eggs,  he  could  not  retail  them  all  out  in  one  day,  so  always 
wholesaled  some  of  them,  as  it  was  very  rare  for  a  carter  to  stand 
market  two  mornings  with  one  load  unless  practically  forced  to. 


137]     (COMMUNICATION,  TRANSPORTATION,  IN  1880       137 

were  about  the  size  she  had  sold  the  year  before  for  a 
certain  price.    In  such  deals  there  was  a  lot  of  higgling. 

Aside  from  the  business  out  of  which  he  made  his  profits, 
at  times  the  carter  also  did  a  considerable  "  accommodation  " 
business — business  from  which  he  neither  expected  nor  re- 
ceived any  cash  returns.  His  neighbors  and  others  from 
whom  he  bought  produce  felt  that  they  had  a  perfect  right 
to  send  by  him  to  town  for  anything  the  country  stores  did 
not  keep,  or  which  could  be  bought  in  town  to  much 
better  advantage.  It  not  infrequently  happened  that  he 
took  up  more  time  buying  goods  for  his  neighbors  than  he 
did  in  selling  out  his  load.  He  brought  out  such  things  as 
ladies'  millinery  and  the  better-class  dressgoods,  and  even 
wares  troublesome  to  haul,  like  bedsteads,  plows,  and  trunks. 
Where  the  article  had  considerable  weight  or  bulk,  a  small 
charge  was  made  for  freight,  otherwise  there  was  no 
charge  whatever. 

The  carter's  life,  while  not  all  sunshine  and  roses,  was 
nevertheless  fascinating  to  many.  Carters  usually  traveled 
two  or  more  together,  and  so  there  was  little  occasion  for 
lonesomeness.  In  fact,  unless  the  weather  was  especially 
bad,  or  something  serious  the  matter,  nearly  every  one  was 
in  high  spirits  during  the  whole  trip.  On  the  return  their 
natural  humors  were  often  made  still  more  hilarious  by  the 
presence  of  the  "  pint  tickler  "  and  the  "  little  brown  jug." 

At  different  points  along  the  way  there  were  exceptionally 
good  feeding  places.  Of  these  there  were  two  general 
classes — the  pine  thickets  and  the  churchyards.  When  the 
weather  was  cold  the  thickets  were  usually  chosen,  since 
they  acted  as  windbreaks,  and  also  furnished  plenty  of 
fire-wood.  When  it  was  warm  the  churchyards  were  quite 
popular,  as  there  was  usually  plenty  of  water  and  some 
breeze.  Where  the  churches  were  set  in  thick  woods,  with 
only  a  small  open  space  around  them,  they  were  good  stop- 


^^8  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [138 

ping  places  all  the  year  round.  Here  the  carters  fed  and 
watered  their  horses,  built  fires,  made  coffee,  warmed  and 
ate  their  victuals,  spun  yams,  joked  one  another,  and  slept. 
Some  followed  carting  as  a  business,  going  nearly  every 
week.  Uusually  they  had  little  crops  which  sometimes  they 
worked,  and  which  sometimes  the  grass  took.  Then  there 
were  others  who  made  only  a  few  trips  a  year,  just  to  carry 
their  own  produce  to  market  and  to  make  purchases  for  their 
families.  In  the  upper  end  of  the  county  the  merchants 
themselves  hauled  part  of  the  produce  they  took  in  and  part 
of  the  goods  they  sold. 


CHAPTER  XII 

Communication,  Transportation,  and  Commerce 
IN  1915 

communication 

Mail  Service. — During  the  last  thirty-five  years  the  means 
of  communication  in  Chowan,  as  elsewhere  in  this  great 
country  of  ours,  have  been  remarkably  developed.  The 
majority  of  families  outside  of  Edenton  are  now  served  by 
rural-free-delivery  mail  routes.  On  October  14,  19 14,  there 
were  seven  of  these  in  the  county,  covering  a  total  of  162 
miles. ^  In  addition,  there  were  three  miles  of  a  route  start- 
ing from  an  adjoining  county.  Since  then  a  second  route 
from  an  adjoining  county  has  come  in,  adding  twelve  more 
miles,  so  that  the  county  now  has  about  a  mile  of  rural-free- 
delivery  route  for  every  square  mile  of  territory.*  More 
than  ninety  per  cent  of  the  population  ^  are  now  within  a 
mile  of  either  some  post-office  or  rural  route,  and  are  getting 
their  mail  daily. 

Telegraph  and  Telephone. — ^There  are  now  only  two 
telegraph  stations  in  the  county.  Certain  sections,  how- 
ever, are  well  served  by  telephone,  there  being  four  com- 
panies represented,  with  a  total  in  the  county  of  eighty 
miles  of  poles  and  two  hundred  and  thirty  miles  of  wire.* 

1  Information  obtained  from  the  Fourth  Assistant  Postmaster  Gen- 
eral, Washington,  D.  C. 

2  The  county  has  178  square  miles  of  territory.    Cf.  infra,  p.  17. 
'  My  own  estimate. 

*  Data  furnished  December  7,  1914,  by  the  Tax  Clerk  of  the  State  of 
North  Carolina  Corporation  Commission. 

139]  139 


140  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [i^q 

In  addition,  there  is  a  private  line  of  some  twenty  miles  in 
length.  There  is  still  another  line,  which  is  owned  by  the 
railroad  and  extends  into  the  county  for  about  five  miles. 
This  line  has  only  one  telephone  in  the  county.  All  lines 
have  long-distance  connections. 

TRANSPORTATION 

Railways. — In  the  field  of  transportation,  advantages 
have  also  been  tremendously  increased.  On  December  i6, 
1 88 1,  the  first  railroad  in  the  county  was  opened  from 
Edenton  to  Norfolk,^  thus  bringing  the  Edenton  section 
of  the  county  into  direct  rail  connection  with  the  outside 
world.  The  nearest  railroad  shipping  point  for  four-fifths 
of  the  farmers,  however,  was  still  from  five  to  twelve  miles 
distant,  and  not  until  1887,  when  a  second  railroad  (start- 
ing from  Suffolk,  Va.,^  and  terminating  in  the  upper  end 
of  the  county  on  the  Chowan  river)  was  opened,  was  this 
condition  changed.  Some  thirty  or  forty  per  cent,  of  the 
farmers  were  still  left  from  five  to  twelve  miles  distant  from 
any  by-rail  shipping  point.  The  next  significant  change  in 
transportation  conditions  was  in  1901  when  the  owners  of 
the  last-mentioned  road  began  shifting  the  southern  end  of 
the  road-bed  toward  the  center  of  the  county  and  extending 
the  line  toward  Edenton,  which  was  destined  to  be  the  new 
southern  terminal  and  to  which  place  it  was  opened  in 
1903.  The  change  gave  the  county  a  railroad  running 
pretty  well  through  its  center  for  about  twenty  miles,  and 
brought  all,  except  comparatively  few  (principally  in  the 
south-eastern  point  of  the  county),  within  five  miles  of  a 
railway.  On  January  i,  19 10,  a  bridge  across  the  Albemarle 
Sound,  replacing  the  old  ferry  system  between  Edenton  and 

^Poor^s  Manual  of  the  Railroads  of  the  United  States  (annual  num- 
bers, 1868-1915,  New  York),  i8th  annual  number  (1885),  p.  383. 
•  From  Suffolk  there  were  three  or  four  lines  running  to  Norfolk. 


141  ]    COMMUNICATION,  TRANSPORTATION,  IN  1915       j^j 

Mackey's  Ferry,  was  opened  for  traffic,^  and  thus  was  com- 
pleted a  direct  all-rail  route  between  Edenton  and  all  prin- 
cipal points  south  and  west. 

Water  Carriage. — With  the  development  of  rail  trans- 
portation, water  transportation  has  gradually  dwindled. 
One  small  steamer  plies  between  Edenton  and  Franklin, 
making  three  trips  a  week,  and  an  occasional  light-draft 
sailing  vessel  makes  Edenton  or  some  other  point  along  the 
county's  coast  line,  but  the  greater  part,  probably  ninety- 
five  per  cent  of  the  transportation  to  and  from  the  county 
is  now  by  rail. 

Wagon  Roads. — For  some  eight  or  ten  years  now  the 
roads  have  been  worked  by  taxation.  In  the  clayey  sec- 
tions, where  they  cut  up  badly  in  times  of  wet  weather,  the 
most  of  them  have  been  better  drained  and  partially  graded 
so  as  to  shed  the  water ;  and  a  few  miles  of  the  worst  have 
been  sanded.  While  what  has  been  done  thus  far  is  signi- 
ficant rather  because  of  what  it  promises  than  because  of 
its  amount,  nevertheless,  the  roads,  on  the  whole,  have  been 
much  improved  over  what  they  were  in  the  eighties. 

COMMERCE 

Carters. — The  business  of  the  carter,  which  in  the  eighties 
was  of  considerable  importance,  has  almost  vanished. 
There  are  a  few  who  buy  chickens  and  eggs  and  personally 
sell  them  in  the  Norfolk  market,  but  they  buy  the  majority 
of  these  from  the  country  merchants  rather  than  from  pri- 
vate families,  and  instead  of  carting  them  to  Norfolk,  usu- 
ally they  send  them  by  rail.  Furthermore,  these  men  now 
generally  have  to  pay  something  near  net  wholesale  Norfolk 
prices,  whether  they  buy  from  the  farmer  direct,  or  from 
the  merchant. 

Merchants. — The  merchants  have  become  so  numerous 

*  Poor,  op.  cit.,  43d  annual  number  ( 1910) ,  p.  469. 


1^2  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [142 

that  competition  among  them  for  the  farmers'  trade  is 
rather  keen,  resulting  in  their  having  to  pay  the  farmer  close 
to  Norfolk  prices  for  what  he  has  to  sell.  Most  chickens 
now  are  sold  by  weight  rather  than  by  the  piece  as  they  were 
formerly,  hence  it  is  easy  to  compare  the  prices  of  different 
merchants,  and  if  one  is  paying  more  than  the  others,  he 
gets  the  trade.  Practically  everybody  still  sells  his  eggs 
locally,  since  hardly  any  one  produces  enough  to  pay  him 
to  make  individual  shipments.  Many,  however,  ship  part 
or  all  of  their  own  poultry  and  certain  other  produce  they 
raise  for  market. 

While  the  importance  of  the  carter  class  of  middlemen 
has  dwindled  to  small  proportions,  that  of  the  merchant 
class  has  considerably  increased  both  as  regards  numbers 
engaged  and  volume  of  business.  Although  many  of  the 
more  substantial  farmers  either  ship  their  own  produce  or 
sell  it  on  the  spot  to  the  agents  of  commission  houses,^  much 
of  the  farm  produce  is  still  handled  by  the  local  merchants. 
More  than  half  of  their  merchandise  goes  out  on  a  credit 
basis,^  with  a  promise  to  liquidate  in  the  fall.  Sometimes 
the  merchant  has  a  crop-lien,  sometimes  there  is  a  mere 
verbal  understanding  that  the  crop  shall  go  through  his 
hands,  and  sometimes  the  debtor  brings  it  to  him  simply 
as  a  matter  of  choice.  The  idea  is  pretty  general  that  the 
city  commission  merchant  will  treat  the  local  merchants 
better  than  he  will  the  farmers,  since  the  latter  individually 
have  comparatively  little  produce  to  ship.  For  this  reason, 
some  who  ship  their  own  stuff,  ship  in  the  name  of  some 
local  merchant. 

With  the  vast  improvement  in  the  general  economic  wel- 

^  Peanuts  are  the  principal  product  sold  to  agents. 

2  The  merchants,  whom  I  have  interviewed  on  this  point,  estimate 
that  from  sixty  to  seventy-five  per  cent  of  the  mercantile  business  is 
done  on  time. 


143]     (COMMUNICATION,  TRANSPORTATION,  IN  1915       143 

fare,  and  with  the  change  from  a  condition  where  the  people 
consumed  most  of  what  they  produced  and  produced  most 
of  what  they  consumed  to  a  condition  where  they  sell  much 
of  what  they  produce  and  buy  much  of  what  they  consume 
— with  these  changes  has  come  a  big  increase  in  the  quantity 
and  variety  of  goods  carried  by  the  general  merchant.  Be- 
sides dry-goods,  groceries,  drugs,  stationery,  hats,  shoe,  con- 
fectionery, snuff,  tobacco,  and  hardware,  some  also  handle 
furniture,  farming  utensils,  cold  drinks,  millinery,  and 
clothing.  In  short,  many  aim  to  supply  practically  all  the 
demands  of  their  customers,  except  a  few  special  wants  of 
the  more  fastidious.  It  should  be  noted,  however,  that  the 
big  mail-order  houses  are  now  doing  considerable  business 
in  this  section,  a  fact  which  is  cutting  into  the  trade  of  the 
local  dealers,  and  which  may  eventually  force  them  to  dis- 
continue certain  lines. 


CHAPTER  XIII 
Labor  and  Wages 
conditions  in  1880 

Labor  Supply. — Labor  in  1880  was  both  plentiful  and 
cheap.  One  could  hire  all  he  wanted  of  any  kind  he  wanted, 
for  any  length  of  time  he  wanted,  and  at  any  time  of  the 
year  he  wanted.  Farm  hands  of  both  races  and  sexes,  fish 
hands — colored  on  the  sound,  mixed  on  the  river,  and  do- 
mestics of  both  races — all  were  anxious  to  work,  and 
were  not  so  very  particular  about  either  the  kind  of  work  or 
the  length  of  the  hours. 

Rates  of  Wages. — There  were  day  hands  and  monthly 
hands.  Men  doing  common  labor  by  the  day  received  from 
forty  to  fifty  cents  and  board,  and  from  fifty  to  seventy  cents 
and  "board  yourself" — twelve  to  twenty  cents  a  day  being 
reckoned  as  the  cost  of  boarding  a  laboring  man.  The 
higher  prices  were  received  in  summer  when  the  days  were 
long  and  hot  and  the  greatest  amount  of  labor  needed. 
Sometimes  as  high  as  seventy-five  cents  a  day  and  board  was 
paid  for  especially  hard  work,  for  instance,  pulling  fodder. 
The  very  best  carpenters  received  from  $1.25  to  $1.50  and 
board,  while  the  ordinary  ones  received  from  75  cents  to  $1. 
Seine  hands,  except  captains  and  seine  menders,  whose 
wages  ranged  from  $2  to  $2.50  a  day,  received  from 
$1  to  $1.35  and  board.  It  must  be  remembered,  however, 
that  this  was  night-and-day  work,  with  much  exposure,  and, 
when  the  fish  were  running  heavy,  very  little  time  for  eating 
and  sleeping.^ 

^  Cf.  supra,  pp.  96,  97. 
144  [144 


145]  LABOR  AND  WAGES  145 

Some  of  the  monthly  hands  worked  the  year  around,  but 
a  large  number  worked  only  during  crop  season — ^from 
about  the  first  of  March  till  the  last  of  July,  receiving  from 
eight  toi  ten  dollars  a  month  with  board  and  lodging.  Those 
hired  for  crop  season  only  generally  received  from  fifty  cents 
to  a  dollar  a  month  more  than  the  same  grade  of  hands 
working  by  the  year.  Twenty-six  working  days  were 
counted  a  month.  Some  hands  were  paid  for  straight  time, 
rain  or  shine,  others  were  paid  only  for  the  time  that  they 
worked.  While  the  day  hands  received  a  little  more  per  day 
during  the  time  they  worked  than  did  the  monthly  hands, 
the  work  of  the  former  was  very  irregular  and  uncertain; 
they  could  get  work  only  for  a  few  days  at. a  time,  or  in  the 
most  busy  part  of  the  season  when  some  one  happened  to 
need  extra  help. 

As  previously  explained,  at  this  period  much  hoe  work 
was  done — at  certain  times  from  two  to  four  hoe  hands 
being  required  to  follow  one  plow.  Many  farmers  de- 
pended almost  entirely  on  day  hands  to  do'  their  hoe  work. 
One  seldom  had  to  lodge  them,  and  it  was  necessary  neither 
to  feed  nor  to  pay  them  except  when  they  were  actually 
working.  While  this  may  have  been  of  advantage  tO'  the 
farmer,  it  was  hard  on  the  laborer. 

For  day  labor,  women  received  from  twenty-five  to  thirty 
cents  and  board  for  housework.  One  would  wash  through- 
out a  long  hot  August  day  for  her  board  and  twenty-five 
cents.  For  light  work  like  sewing,  they  received  from 
fifteen  to  twenty  cents  a  day.  By  the  month,  the  year 
round,  their  wages  ranged  from  three  to  four  dollars. 
Many  worked  both  in  the  house  and  in  the  field  for  this 
price.  When  working  in  the  field  they  not  only  worked 
with  the  hoe  but  even  cleaned  up  the  new  ground,  hauled 
dirt,  stripped  fodder — in  fact  did  almost  anything  there 


1^5  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [1^5 

was  to  do  except  ditch,  maul,  and  plow,  and  some  doubtless 
did  these  things. 

Hours. — The  eight-hour-day  system  for  either  men  or 
women,  if  ever  thought  of,  was  a  mere  dream  that  few  dared 
tO'  mention  and  none  expected  to  see  come  to  pass.  In  the 
country,  during  six  or  seven  months  of  the  year,  the  hired 
girl  turned  out  about  four  o'clock  in  the  morning  to  prepare 
breakfast.  If  she  worked  outdoors,  after  cleaning  up  the 
dishes,  she  went  to  the  field  and  stayed  till  time  to  cook 
dinner.^  After  dinner  she  went  back  and  stayed  till  time 
to  cook  supper.  When  supper  was  over  she  had  to  clean  up 
the  dishes,  rarely  finishing  till  after  eight  o'clock.  The  only 
time  she  had  ofT  was  Sunday  afternoons. 

LABOR  AND  WAGES  IN  I915 

Scarcity  of  Labor  and  the  Method  of  Securing  a  Sup- 
ply.— In  1880  laborers  were  hunting  jobs;  at  present  just 
the  reverse  is  true — jobs  are  hunting  laborers.  The  time 
was  when  one  could  hire  all  the  labor  he  wanted,  and  when 
he  wanted  it,  without  previously  making  any  special  pro- 
visions, but  that  time  is  no  more.  Unless  one  has  plenty  of 
labor  living  on  his  own  land,  ordinarily  he  is  unable  to  hire 
hands  at  the  very  times  he  needs  them  most.  Because  oif 
this  condition  the  great  majority  of  farmers  who  do  much 
hiring  aim  tO'  keep  settled  on  their  own  places  sufficient  labor 
to  supply  their  needs.  To  attain  this  end  the  usual  custom 
is  to  furnish  families  (mostly  colored),  rent  free,  cheap  one- 
or  two-room  shanties,  fire-wood,  and  small  garden  plots.  It 
is  a  common  thing  for  a  tenant  of  this  class  to  have  a  "  side 
crop"  of  two  or  three  acres  of  cotton  which  he  cultivates 
on  halves.  In  furnishing  free  quarters,  fire-wood,  and 
garden,  the  landlord  appeals  to  that  side  of  human  nature 

^  If  it  was  an  extremely  busy  season  with  the  farmer,  frequently  his 
wife  would  do  the  breakfast  dishes  and  get  dinner. 


147]  LABOR  AND  WAGES  147 

which  is  always  looking  for  and  expecting  something  for 
nothing,  and  in  this  way  he  induces  families  tO'  take  up  their 
residence  on  his  land.  By  renting  such  families  a  few  acres 
on  halves,  ordinarily  he  is  able  tO'  hold  them  through  the 
crop  season,  when  they  might  otherwise  pull  up  and  leave 
him  when  he  is  busiest. 

Such  families  as  above  described  are,  in  reality,  not 
tenants,  but  rather  hired  laborers  domiciled  on  the  em- 
ployer's premises,  and  more  or  less  controlled  by  him.  They 
promise  to  work  for  him  whenever  he  needs  their  services. 
At  other  times,  if  they  are  not  needed  in  their  own  little 
crops,  they  are  at  liberty  to  work  wherever  they  see  fit. 

While  the  above  variety  of  tenant  pays  nothing  directly 
for  his  shack,  fire-wood,  and  little  patch  of  garden  (some- 
times only  a  small  space  around  the  shack  in  which  he  lives), 
he  usually  gets  from  twenty-five  to  fifty  cents  a  day  less  for 
his  labor  than  he  could  command  in  the  open  market. 
Sometimes  the  landlord  agrees  to  furnish  these  tenants  work 
whenever  they  want  it,  but  almost  invariably  at  a  compara- 
tively low  rate  of  wages.  This  class  of  laborers  is  largely 
composed  of  those  with  little  capacity  for  self-direction, 
less  ambition,  and  almost  no  initiative. 

Rates  and  Services. — The  wages  of  monthly  hands  on  the 
farm  now  run  from  $12  to  $20  a  month,  besides  board  and 
lodging.  In  the  mills  and  lumber  woods,  labor  generally  is 
paid  by  the  day,  the  wages  of  common  labor  ranging  from 
$1.10  to  $1.60.  Men  working  on  the  farm  by  the  day  re- 
ceive from  75  cents  tO'  $1,  sometimes  with  and  sometimes 
without  board.  Pound-net  hands,  who  formerly  were  paid 
from  $15  tO'  $25  a  month,  now  receive  from  $25  tO'  $60, 
and  the  work  is  far  less  arduous.  For  example,  now  the 
boats  are  all  run  by  gas,  while  formerly  they  were  sailed 
when  there  was  wind,  and  when  there  was  none  they  had 
to  be  rowed.     One  of  the  biggest  pound-net  fishermen  on 


1^8  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [i^g 

the  sound  told  me  that  if  fishing  were  carried  on  now 
without  gas  he  could  get  no  hands  at  all. 

Women  receive  from  sixty  tO'  seventy-five  cents  without 
board  for  field  work.  On  an  average  the  wages  of  women 
on  the  inside  are  more  than  double  what  they  were  in  1880, 
while  the  work  they  do  is  about  half  what  it  was  then.  In 
the  eighties  and  early  nineties  the  women  who  cooked  usually 
washed,  ironed,  and  nursed  (cared  for  the  children).  Now, 
especially  in  town  and  sometimes  in  the  country,  the  servant 
who  cooks  expects  tO'  do  nothing  else :  the  same  is  true  of  the 
nurse,  so  a  third  person  has  tO'  be  called  in  to  do  the  wash- 
ing and  ironing. 

In  Edenton  (the  only  town  in  the  county)  the  servants 
rarely  live  on  the  premises.  The  washerwoman  either 
comes  to  the  employer's  home  for  a  couple  of  days  in  the 
week  to  do'  the  washing  and  ironing,  or  else  carries 
the  clothes  tO'  her  own  home.  The  latter  is  the 
more  common  custom.^  The  cook  ordinarily  comes 
in  about  seven  o'clock  in  the  morning,  cooks  breakfast 
and  dinner  (dinner  is  always  the  midday  meal),  cleans 
up  the  dishes,  and  is  away  by  two  or  three  o'clock 
lin  the  afternoon,  in  many  cases  not  tO'  be  seen  any 
more  till  the  following  morning.  She  eats  breakfast  where 
she  works,  but  refuses  to  eat  dinner  there,  claiming  that  she 
much  prefers  to  eat  at  home;  so,  when  she  leaves,  she  carries 
away  with  her  a  turn  of  victuals^ — not  infrequently  enough 
for  a  good-sized  family.  In  fact  many  a  man  who  has  a 
cook  has  not  only  to  pay  and  feed  her,  but  also'  to  put  up 
with  her  carrying  away  a  large  part  of  what  several  others 
eat.  This  condition  is  expressed  in  some  lines  of  a  song, 
which  run  thus  : 

"  Why  do  I  need  to  work  so  hard? 
I  got  a  wife  in  de  white  fo'ks'  yard." 

1  In  the  rural  districts  the  former  prevails. 


149]  LABOR  AND  WAGES  149 

While  formerly  there  were  plenty  of  house-servants  to  be 
had  at  from  three  to  four  dollars  a  month,  now  one  has  to 
pay  from  six  to  ten  dollars!,  and  let  them  do  as  they  please. 
In  fact  many  a  person  seems  to  consider  himself  lucky  if  he 
gets  one  under  any  conditions. 

Causes  of  Increased  Wages  of  Men. — Why  this  rise  of 
from  75  to  125  per  cent  in  money  wages?  In  the  first  place, 
there  has  been  a  tremendous  increase  in  the  per-capita  pro- 
duction of  wealth  and  a  general  rise  in  prices.  In  agricul- 
ture the  increased  productivity  has  come  about  through  a 
greater  dissemination  and  more  general  application  of  the 
modern  principles  of  agriculture,  together  with  a  wider 
and  more  efficient  use  of  improved  farm  machinery.  In 
manufacturing  it  has  come  through  the  substitution  of  the 
factory  type  of  industry  for  the  household  type.  The  in- 
crease in  prices  has  come  about  principally  by  reason  of  two 
economic  changes,  one  of  which  is  universal  and  the  other 
local.  The  first  is  that  a  greater  cheapening  has  taken  place 
in  the  production  of  gold — due  tO'  the  application  of  new 
processes  and  the  opening  up  of  new  fields — ^than  in  the  pro- 
duction of  commodities  in  general.  The  second  is  the  great 
increase  in  the  transportation  facilities  of  Chowan  since 
1880  which  now  enables  producers  to  secure  prices  that  are 
controlled  by  world-  rather  than  by  local-market  conditions. 
This  increased  productivity  and  rise  in  prices  have  made  it 
possible  for  the  employer  tO'  pay  more  than  formerly.  But 
this  is  only  one  blade  of  the  shears  which  cut  off  a  bigger 
wage  for  the  employee.  The  employer,  as  a  rule,  raises 
wages  not  simply  because  he  is  able  to,  but  because  he  is 
forced  to.  The  factor  that  has  forced  employers  to  grant 
higher  wages — the  other  blade  of  the  shears — has  been  the 
diminished  relative  supply  of  workers  due  to  the  widened 
demand  for  workers  and  to  their  migration  to  other  locali- 
ties.   The  increased  demand  has  come  from  several  sources. 


j^O  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [j^q 

In  agriculture,  while  improved  methods  of  cultivating  and 
housing,  and  a  somewhat  smaller  area  under  cultivation,^ 
make  less  labor  in  general  necessary  in  this  industry  than 
formerly,  nevertheless  there  is  needed  more  labor  of  able- 
bodied  men,  because  of  the  fact  that  much  of  the  planting, 
hoeing,  and  gathering,  which  the  women  and  children  form- 
erly did  by  hand,  is  now  done  by  tools  and  machinery  oper- 
ated by  men.  The  fishing  does  not  require  as  many  hands, 
as  it  did  three  and  a  half  decades  ago,  but,  owing  to  the 
longer  season  for  pound-nets  than  for  seines,  the  sum  total 
of  the  labor  done  by  men  is  probably  about  the  same.'^  The 
building  of  the  railroads,  the  manning  and  the  keeping  of 
them  in  repair,  commercial  manufacturing,  and  the  cutting, 
hauling^  and  milling  of  the  timber  have  all  resulted  in  en- 
tirely new  demands  for  labor.  With  increased  formal  edu- 
cation and  increased  means  of  travel  and  communication, 
the  market  value  of  labor  has  become  much  better  known. 
With  the  spreading  of  this  knowledge,  many  of  those  with 
the  most  ambition,  energy,  and  initiative  having  labor  for 
sale,  have  migrated  tO'  places  where  its  value  could  be  more 
nearly  realized. 

Causes  of  Increased  Wages  of  Women. — The  rise  in  the 
wages  of  women  doing  house-  and  farm- work  is  due  to 
causes  somewhat  different  from  those  which  effected  the 
rise  in  the  wages  of  men.  Women  have  not  gone  elsewhere 
in  search  of  work;  furthermore,  not  only  has  the  work  usu- 
ally allotted  to  them  decreased  rather  than  increased  in  pro- 
portion tO'  the  increase  in  population,  but  the  absolute  amount 
they  now  do,  even  in  the  house,  is  far  less  than  it  was  in 
1880.  Much  of  what  they  formerly  did  has  been  trans- 
ferred to  the  factory,  and  that  which  is  left  is  much  more 
easily  and  quickly  done  now  than  then,  by  reason  of  the  use 
of  modern  devices.     In  the  fields  the  work  done  by  women 

1  Cf.  table  6,  p.  269.  2  Cf,  table  13,  p.  276. 


I^l]  LABOR  AND  WAGES  151 

is  probably  less  than  fifty  per  cent  of  what  it  was  in  the 
early  eighties. 

With  an  absolute  decrease  of  some  forty  or  fifty  per  cent  ^ 
in  the  amount  of  work  done  by  women  now  from  that  done 
by  them  in  1880,  and  with  a  49.3  per  cent,  increase  in  popu- 
lation, 2  if  there  were  no  further  data  at  hand  one  naturally 
would  expect  the  supply  of  female  labor  to  be  greater  in 
proportion  to  the  demand  than  in  the  eighties,  and,  as  a  re- 
sult, that  lower  instead  of  higher  wages  would  prevail. 
Just  the  contrary,  however,  is  the  case.  The  decrease  in 
the  supply  of  female  laborers  has  gone  on  at  a  more  rapid 
rate  than  has  the  decrease  in  the  supply  of  work  for  them. 
This  anomaly  is  explained  by  the  terms  "  pride "  and 
"  growth  of  material  welfare."  Pride  and  the  general  im- 
provement in  economic  conditions  which  has  enabled  an 
ever-increasing  proportion  of  the  people  to  maintain  their 
pride,  are  the  two  main  factors  which  have  caused  the 
present  dearth  of  female  laborers. 

Growing  Opposition  to  Hired  Female  Service. — Al- 
tho  hired  female  (as  well  as  male)  labor  in  1880  was 
predominantly  colored,  there  were  still  a  limited  number  of 
white  women  to  be  employed  for  almost  any  kind  of  work 
they  were  physically  capable  of  doing,  whether  in  the  field 
or  in  the  house.  At  present  this  class  of  hired  labor  is  very 
near  the  vanishing  point.  A  few  white  women  and  girls 
work  outdoors  during  the  chopping  and  housing  season,  but, 
as  a  rule,  they  are  members  of  the  families  who  cultivate 
the  farms  on  which  they  work.  Some  white  women  still 
pick  cotton  for  hire,  but  this  is  by  the  pound,  and  not  by  the 
day  or  month,  which  they  consider  a  very  different  proposi- 
tion, since  in  the  former  case  one  is  one's  own  boss  and  can 
come  and  go  when  she  pleases. 

Now  that  all  planting,  except  the  "  setting  out  "  (trans- 

^  My  personal  estimate.  'Cakulations  made  for  June  i,  1915. 


1^2  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [1-3 

planting)  of  sweet-potato  sprouts,  is  done  by  machinery ;  all 
peanuts  picked  off  by  machinery;  and  comparatively  little 
hoe  work  done — not  much  field  work  formerly  done  by  wo- 
men, aside  from  picking  cotton,  is  left.  For  this  reason, 
if  for  no  other,  one  would  expect  to  see  comparatively  fewer 
women  in  the  fields  than  in  the  earlier  days.  But  there  is  a 
more  potent  reason  still.  For  years  many  of  both  sexes 
have  been  especially  prejudiced  against  a  white  woman's 
doing  ordinary  farm  labor.  A  goodly  number  of  women 
who  had  it  to-  do  for  a  living  felt  exceedingly  chagrined  if 
caught  at  it,  nO'  matter  how  poor  they  might  be.  Some 
would  even  run  and  hide  if  a  man  was  seen  approaching. 
With  the  growth  of  economic  well-being  an  ever-increasing 
proportion  has  been'  enabled  to  avoid  such  work. 

Probably  ninety-five  per  cent  of  the  rural  and  sixty  per 
cent  of  the  urban  white  families,  and  nearly  all  of  the 
colored,  still  do  all  their  domestic  work,  while  the  remaining 
five  and  forty  per  cent,  respectively,  hire  much  of  their 
cooking,  washing,  ironing,  and  nursing  done.  As  for  hired 
white  domestics,  there  are  probably  not  a  half  dozen  in 
the  county  working  as  servants  for  a  straight  wage.  The 
few  white  women  who  live  out,  do  so  under  the  express  stip- 
ulation that  they  are  to  be  considered  and  treated  as  members 
of  the  families  with  whom  they  live,  rather  than  as  hired 
servants.  They  do  not  doi  the  housework  while  the  other 
women  of  the  family  sit  back  and  "  play  lady " — they 
simply  help  the  other  women,  and  their  remuneration  usu- 
ally comes  as  does  that  of  a  wife  or  daughter  (in  so  far  as 
the  remuneration  of  these  latter  comes  in  the  present) — in 
the  shape  of  food,  shelter,  clothing,  and  recreation. 

Prejudice  against  work  for  women  decreases  as  we  pro- 
ceed from  hired  field  labor  to  business  and  professional 
labor.  The  scale,  arranged  in  a  descending  series,  is 
about  as  follows:  hired  field  labor  (except  cotton-pick- 
ing),   hired    domestic   labor,    field    labor    for   one's    own 


1^3]  LABOR  AND  WAGES  153 

family  (except  cotton-picking),  domestic  labor  for  a 
family  in  which  one  has  been  adopted  for  an  indefinite 
period,  co'tton-picking  for  hire,  cotton-picking  for  one's 
family,  domestic  labor  for  one's  own  family,  clerking  in  a 
store,  stenography,  teaching.  There  are  still  a  few  of  that 
variety  which  believes  that  any  useful  work  whatsoever  ill 
befits  a  lady/  This  type  of  parasite  has  been,  and  con- 
tinues to  be,  an  incubus  on  the  county,  however,  not  so  much 
because  of  the  number  of  them  the  county  has  been  forced  to 
maintain  in  idleness  and  frivolity,  as  because  of  the  feeling 
they  have  helped  to  engender  and  foster  among  the  working 
classes^ — the  feeling  that  women  cannot  work  without  com- 
promising their  dignity  to  a  greater  or  less  degree,  the  de- 
gree depending  upon  the  kind  of  work  performed. 

Colored  Women  Follow  in  the  Wake  of  White. — This 
feeling  of  injured  pride^ — a  feeling  quite  distinct  from,  and 
not  to  be  confounded  with,  plain  ordinary  laziness^ — which 
attacks  many  white  women  on  exposure  tO'  work,  is  an  af- 
fection which  had  spread  tO'  their  colored  sisters.  There 
may  never  have  been  a  time  when  both  white  and  black  did 
not  occasionally  experience  a  sense  of  more  or  less  aversion 
to  certain  kinds  of  severe  physical  exertion,  but  there  was  a 
time,  and  that  not  very  long  ago,  when  the  blacks  did  not 
feel  disgraced  by  having  tO'  work.  The  white  race  has 
itself  to  thank  for  the  fact  that  the  colored  contingent  of 
the  county's  population  has  been  inoculated  with  this 
deadly  virus — false  pride. 

The  colored  women  are  more  and  more  quitting  the  fields. 
The  great  majority  will  not  hire  out  to  do  field  work.  As 
hired  servants  they  are  also  withdrawing  from  the  domestic 
sphere.  The  best  colored  families  (economically  and  intel- 
lectually speaking)  positively  refuse  to  allow  their  daugh- 
ters tO'  hire  to  white  people  for  any  kind  of  menial  service 
whatsoever. 

1  Cf.  infra,  pp.  256,  257. 


1-4  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [1^4 

It  is  claimed  by  some  of  the  most  prominent  colored  men 
that  they  are  obliged  to  keep  their  daughters  from  contact 
with  white  men  in  order  to  keep  them  from  being  grossly 
insulted.  Just  how  big  a  role  this  factor  plays  in  keeping 
colored  girls  out  of  the  service  of  white  men  it  is  hard  to 
say.  However,  the  following  facts  are  pretty  well  estab- 
lished and  generally  admitted :  First,  that  a  colored  girl  has 
absolutely  no^  protection  from  being  grossly  insulted  by  a 
white  man  if  she  happens  to  be  caught  alone  with  him; 
neither  has  she  any  redress  whatsoever,  for  no  court  would 
for  a  moment  entertain  her  complaint.  Second,  that  the 
greater  the  proportion  of  white  blood  a  colored  girl  pos- 
sesses and  the  more  educated  and  refined  she  is,  the  greater 
the  efforts  made  by  white  men  to  seduce  her. 

Two  incidents  related  to  me  in  the  summer  of  19 14, 
whether  fact  or  fiction,  at  any  rate  show  the  trend  of  opinion 
among  a  certain  element  of  the  colored  people.  They  are 
as  follows :  The  daughter  of  one  of  the  "  leading  citizens  " 
(a  lawyer)  of  Edenton  went  over  to  the  home  of  a  colored 
woman  and  informed  her  that  she  was  looking  for  a  cook. 
Did  this  colored  woman  reply  that  she  had  been  longing  for 
just  such  an  opportunity?  No,  no,  not  at  all!  The  reply 
was,  "  I,  too,  am  looking  for  a  cook,  and  have  been  for 
several  days."  Another  white  woman  who^  approached  a 
colored  woman  on  the  subject  of  the  latter's  cooking  and 
washing  for  the  former,  obtained  this  response :  "  When 
you  go  home,  look  in  de  glass  an  you'll  see  yo'  cook,  and  a 
few  years  later  ef  you'll  look  in  dat  same  glass  you'll  see  yo' 
wash'oman." 

The  numerous  reports  which  have  come  to  me,  and  also- 
my  own  observations,  force  me  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
last-mentioned  lady  of  color  was  uttering  a  prophecy  which 
is  even  now  in  the  process  of  being  fulfilled.  It  is  the  com- 
mon experience  of  many  who  are  actually  in  need  of  do- 
mestic help  that  they  are  unable  to  obtain  it. 


PART  III 
DEVELOPMENT  OF  SOCIAL  LIFE 


CHAPTER  XIV 

Formal  Education  in  the  Eighties 

reading  matter 

Both  the  means  of  formal  education  and  the  ability  to 
utilize  them  were  very  scant  in  1880.  What  few  books 
there  were,  were  chiefly  copies  of  the  Bible  and  of  elementary 
school-books.  Many  a  home  had  no  book  in  it  of  any  sort. 
Along  in  the  nineties  there  was  seen  an  occasional  volume 
secured  from  traveling  book-agents,  which  contained,  ac- 
cording to  said  agents,  the  combined  knowledge  of  the  legal, 
clerical,  and  medical  professions,  the  wisdom  of  the  sages, 
both  past  and  present,  business  forms  and  usages,  instruc- 
tion as  to  how  to  act  and  what  to  wear  at  various  high- 
society  functions,  cooking  recipes  for  numerous  dishes  the 
names  of  which  the  people  could  not  pronounce  and  the 
materials  for  which  they  did  not  possess,  and  sundry  other 
''  valuable  information."  Their  need  for  such  literature 
was  just  about  as  urgent  as  the  need  of  African  bushwomen 
for  evening  gowns. 

Newspapers  and  periodicals,  except  a  few  in  Edenton, 
were  rarely  seen.  A  four-page  weekly.  The  Clarion^  was 
published  in  Edenton  in  1880,  but,  with  all  an  editor's  vivid 
imagination,  its  circulation  was  reported  as  only  525.^  Few 
people  in  the  county,  outside  of  Edenton,  knew  of  its 
existence. 

IN,  W.  Ayer  &  Son.    American  Newspaper  Annual  (Philadelphia), 
vol.  for  1881,  p.  119. 

157]  157 


jcS  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [icg 

UNFAVORABLE  CONDITIONS   FOR  READING 

For  three  very  good  reasons  the  amount  of  reading  done 
was  exceedingly  small — for  the  vast  majority,  almost  nil. 
In  the  first  place,  many  were  unable  to  read  at  all,  and  most 
of  the  others  read  so  poorly  that  they  obtained  little  meaning 
and  less  pleasure  from  what  they  did  read.  Second,  as 
has  just  been  stated,  many  had  nothing  to  read,  and  even 
the  most  favored  possessed  little  that  was  at  all  attractive. 
Finally,  the  principal  light  at  night,  especially  in  the  rural 
sections,  was  that  furnished  by  a  lightwood  knot,  which  gave 
an  unsteady  light  of  constantly  varying  intensity;  besides, 
it  emitted  so  much  heat  that  if  one  sat  near  enough  tO' 
see  well,  his  face  was  burning.  Practically  the  only  means 
of  communication  for  ninety  per  cent  of  the  population  was 
personal  intercourse.  The  great  mass  of  the  people  knew 
little  or  nothing  of  what  was  going  on  in  the  outside  world. 

PUBLIC  SCHOOLS 

Equipment. — As  for  public  schools,  the  few  that  existed 
were  pitiable,  archaic  apologies  from  the  standpoint  of  both 
equipment  and  instruction.  The  buildings  were  rough, 
small  (usually  about  16x20  ft.  and  7  to  8  ft.  pitch),  one- 
room  structures  that  were  neither  painted,  ceiled,  plastered, 
nor  papered.  At  one  end  was  a  door ;  at  the  other,  an  open 
fireplace.  The  furnishings  consisted  of  a  blackboard  ( some 
three  feet  square)  that  was  seldom  used,  one  chair  and 
either  a  table  or  lock  desk  for  the  teacher,  and  from  eight 
to  fourteen  two-seated  desks  and  some  backless  benches  for 
the  pupils.  Everything  was  home-made.  Not  only  were 
the  desks  uncomfortable,  but  in  many  schools  there  were 
far  too  few  to  seat  the  average  number  in  attendance,  much 
less  those  enrolled.  Even  in  the  late  eighties  one  could 
sometimes  see  from  fifty  to  sixty  children  in  a  schoolroom 
with  desk  capacity  for  only  about  twenty- four.     Under  such 


159]  FORMAL  EDUCATION  IN  THE  EIGHTIES  159 

conditions,  usually  three  would  crowd  on  each  of  the  desks, 
and  the  remaining  ones  would  have  to  use  the  benches — 
simply  rough  plank  with  two  pegs  in  each  end.  It  was 
customary  for  the  older  children  to  preempt  the  few  desks, 
leaving  the  younger  ones  to  occupy  the  benches,  which  were 
frequently  so  high  that  the  feet  of  the  little  folks  swung 
clear  of  the  floor.  These  slab  benches  had  at  least  one 
point  in  their  favor :  on  days  when  there  was  a  "  small 
house,"  they  could  be  pitched  up  on  the  joists  and  thus 
gotten  out  of  the  way.  When  there  was  a  ''  full  house  " 
with  "  standing  room  only,"  one  in  the  far  end  of  the  room 
from  the  teacher,  in  order  to  reach  her,  would  either  have 
to  hurdle  several  benches,  or  else  serpentine  in  and  out 
among  them. 

Fitness  of  Teachers. — The  teachers,  on  the  whole,  were 
woefully  deficient,  having  had  little  formal  education  of  any 
kind,  and  no  special  training  whatever  in  the  art  of  teach- 
ing. If  one  could  blunder  along  over  a  simple  text  and 
"  cipher  "  through  the  "  rule  of  three,"  little  else  was  re- 
quired. Occasionally  the  school  committee  secured  some 
boy  or  girl  preparing  for  college,  or  who  had  had  a  year  or 
two  in  college,  but  all  too  frequently  the  teachers  were  those 
who  had  obtained  most  of  what  book  knowledge  they 
possessed  from  schools  similar  to  those  they  were  attempt- 
ing to  teach.  When  the  committee  went  to  hire  a  teacher, 
it  usually  spent  far  more  time  considering  the  price  de- 
manded than  the  qualifications  offered.  In  the  biennial  re- 
port for  the  school  years  of  1881  and  1882  the  state  su- 
perintendent says  of  the  state  at  large,  "  Cheap  teachers 
are  preferred  because  of  their  cheapness,  however  incom- 
petent, to  well-qualified  teachers,  if  increase  of  qualifica- 
tions requires  recognition  by  increased  salaries."  ^    Chowan 

1  Biennial  Report  of  the  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction,  North 
Carolina,  1881  and  1882,  p.  21. 


l6o  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [i5o 

was  no  exception.  For  the  four-year^  period  1 88 1-4,  the 
average  salaries  per  month  were  $23.98  and  $22.04  for 
white  and  colored  teachersi,  respectively.^ 

Of  course,  the  committee  had  no  great  range  of  choice 
in  the  selection  of  teachers  when  paying  such  small  wages. 
One  of  the  most  deplorable  features  was  that  often  the 
small  salary  paid  was  more  than  the  person  employed  was 
worth.  Those  hired  as  teachers  were  not  those  making 
teaching  a  profession.  Teaching  was  simply  a  side-issue 
with  them.  The  position  was  frequently  passed  out  to 
someone  in  the  neighborhood  because  of  his  or  her  needs^ 
rather  than  because  of  any  special  fitness  for  the  work. 
The  few  who  had  made  any  preparation  for  teaching  went 
where  they  could  be  hired  for  longer  terms  and  at  bigger 
salaries.  After  commenting  on  this  fact,  the  state  super-- 
intendent  continues  as  follows : 

The  large  number  of  teachers  of  public  schools,  who  did  not 
attend  the  Normal  Schools,  were  incompetent,  wanting  in 
habits  of  study  and  in  a  knowledge  of  how  to  study  to  ad- 
vantage and  consequently  non-progressive,  knowing  nothing 
of  any  studies  except  such  as  they  had  imperfectly  learned  at 
the  ordinary  schools  [the  public  schools  which  we  are  now 
reviewing]  and  nothing  of  the  improved  methods  of  teaching 
and  school  management.^ 

School  Term. — ^The  schools  were  supposed  to  *'  keep  " 
four  months  in  the  year,  generally  divided  into  two  terms — 
one  of  five  or  six  weeks  in  the  late  summer  after  crops  were 
laid  by  (beginning  the  latter  part  of  July),  and  the  other 
during  the  winter. 

1  The  record  for  1880  is  lacking,  hence  the  average  for  a  four-year 
instead  of  a  five-year  period,  is  given. 

2  The  calculations  are  based  on  data  found  in  the  Biennial  Reports 
of  the  State  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction  of  North  Carolina, 
for  the  years  indicated. 

^Biennial  Report,  op.  cit.,  for  1881  and  1882,  p.  22. 


l6i]  FORMAL  EDUCATION  IN  THE  EIGHTIES  i6i 

Courses  of  Study. — Every  pupil  had  a  Webster's  spelling- 
book  (known  as  the  "  old  blue-back,"  because  of  its  blue 
pasteboard  binding)  whether  he  had  any  other  book  or  not, 
and  the  first  year  or  two  of  his  school  life,  after  having 
learned  the  alphabet,  was  spent  in  spelling  out  of  it  as  he 
held  it  in  his  hand.  After  a  while  he  got  a  reader  of  some 
kind,  not  always  one  suited  to  his  stage  in  the  world  of 
literature,  but  frequently  whatever  happened  to  have  best 
withstood  the  ravages  of  time  and  children  as  it  came  down 
through  the  family.  Those  further  advanced  had  some  sort 
of  an  arithmetic,  grammar  and  geography.  All  were 
given  some  practice  in  writing.  Few  ever  finished  with  the 
"  blue-back,"  for  after  going  partly  through  "  spelling  out 
of  the  book  "  and  being  turned  back  several  times,  the  pupil 
began  spelling  "  by  heart,"  which  usually  lasted  the  re- 
mainder of  his  school  career.  The  words  were  arranged 
according  to  length,  and  the  few  who  accomplished  the  feat 
of  spelling  through  "  by  heart,"  will  probably  never  forget 
how  their  bosoms  swelled  with  pride  as  they  rolled  out  those 
seven  and  eight  syllable  words  towards  the  latter  part  of 
the  "  old  blue-back."  They  were  spelled  something  as  fol- 
lows :  I-n,  in,  c-o-m,  com,  incom,  p-r-e,  pre,  incompre,  h-e-n, 
hen,  incomprehen,  s-i,  si,  incomprehensi,  b-i-I,  bil,  incompre- 
hensibil,  i,  incomprehensibili,  t-y,  ty,  incomprehensibility. 
In  later  days,  some  of  the  more  "  progressive  "  teachers  sub- 
stituted dictionaries  ^  for  "  blue-backs  "  in  the  case  of  the 
more  advanced  pupils,  and  required  the  meanings  of  the 
words  in  addition  to  their  spelling.  Being  promoted  to  the 
dictionary  class  had  one  advantage — it  made  one  think  he 
was  moving  along,  which  is  always  stimulating. 

Classification. — Aside  from  the  "  blue-backs  "  there  was 
little  uniformity  in  the  school-books,  they  having  come  down 

*  These  had  been  recommended  by  the  State  Board  of  Education. 


l62  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [152 

from  various  generations,  and  often  from  sundry  neighbor- 
hoods. It  was  a  common  experience  to  find  in  a  school 
pupils  in  the  same  grade  and  subject  with  books  by  two  or 
three  different  authors.  The  exception  was  to  find  those  in 
the  same  grade  and  subject  with  the  same  book.  In  his  re- 
port for  1880  the  state  superintendent  speaks  of  the  "  very 
serious  evils  of  the  diversity  of  text-books,"  ^  and  recom- 
mends legislation  for  securing  uniformity.  Aside  from  the 
"  by-heart  "  spelling  groups,  and  some  of  the  higher  reading 
classes,  grading  and  classification  was  slight.  From  forty 
to  fifty  recitations  in  the  five-and-a-half -hour  teaching-day 
was  the  usual  number. 

Recitations  and  Methods  of  Instruction. — Much  of  what 
was  learned  during  the  few  weeks  of  school  was  forgotten 
during  the  long  intervals  between,  which  fact  was  used  by 
the  teachers  as  an  excuse  for  turning  back  the  pupils  at  the 
beginning  of  each  term.  This  turning-back,  regardless  of 
what  the  pretext  or  reason  might  be,  if  for  more  than  a  brief 
review,  always  tended  to  discourage  the  more  ambitious  chil- 
dren. Sometimes  this  was  doubtless  the  proper  procedure ; 
sometimes  the  teacher  thought  it  was  when  it  was  not; 
sometimes  it  was  done  for  reasons  best  known  to  the  teacher 
herself,  though  generally  suspected  by  the  pupils,  and  freely 
alleged  among  themselves  and  their  parents — she  did  not 
want  to  push  them  beyond  her  own  depth,  especially  in 
arithmetic. 

The  usual  routine  was  to  start  off  mornings,  after  having 
had  a  few  verses  from  the  New  Testament,  with  the  three 
or  four  "  by-heart  "  spelling  classes,  followed  by  the  "  book- 
spellers,"  and  these  in  turn  by  those  still  battling  with  the 
alphabet.  Each  child  had  from  four  to  six  recitations  daily. 
The  "  book-spellers  "  and  the  "  alphabet-learners  "  had  no 

1  Annual  Report  for  1880,  p.  65. 


163]  FORMAL  EDUCATION  IN  THE  EIGHTIES  163 

variation  in  their  work,  but  simply  one  recitation  after  an- 
other of  the  same  thing  following  in  monotonous  succession. 
The  last  ten  minutes  preceding  the  one-hour  noon  recess  was 
frequently  devoted  to  writing. 

In  all  schools  mathematics  was  the  residual  claimant. 
After  the  spelling,  reading,  geography,  and  grammar  les- 
sons had  been  "  said,"  which  ordinarily  was  not  later  than 
the  middle  of  the  afternoon  session  (usually  earlier),  the 
more  advanced  pupils  "ciphered"  till  school  "let  out." 
Those  who  had  arithmetics  used  them,  and  for  the 
others  the  teachers  would  "set  down  sums"  on  their 
slates.  Except  for  those  who  were  attacking  the  multipli- 
cation table,  there  were  no  recitations  whatever  in  mathe- 
matics. Everybody  worked  at  his  seat,  assuming  that  he 
worked  at  all,  while  the  teacher  spent  the  time  in  looking 
over  answers,  helping  out  those  who  were  "  stuck,"  setting 
down  sums  for  those  who  had  no  books,  and  "  hearing  the 
lessons  "  of  those  who  were  not  far  enough  advanced  to 
be  "  doin'  sums." 

If  a  child  wanted  a  word  pronounced,  or  any  other  infor- 
mation whatsoever  concerning  his  work,  he  felt  at  perfect 
liberty  to  interrupt  the  teacher  regardless  of  what  she  might 
be  doing.  In  fact,  the  frequent  consulting  of  the  teacher 
was  considered  commendable,  since  it  was  supposed  to  indi- 
cate industry  on  the  part  of  the  child.  The  children  in  their 
seats,  when  trying  to  "  get  their  lessons,"  "  said  them  over  " 
in  stage  whispers,  thus  creating  a  constant  roar,  and  making 
it  necessary  for  those  reciting  to  speak  rather  loud  so  as  to 
be  heard  by  the  teacher.  This  in  turn  caused  those  who 
were  attempting  to  study  to  have  to  whisper  a  little  louder 
in  order  to  be  able  to  hear  themselves.  During  the  period 
of  from  three  to  twelve  minutes  allotted  to  a  recitation,  the 
teacher  attempted  to  "  hear  lessons."  Amidst  all  the  dis- 
tractions caused  by  loud  whispering,  recitations,  and  the 


j54  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [154 

running  to  and  from  the  teacher  and  in  and  out  of  doors  by 
the  children,  studying  was  well-nigh  impossible. 

Expenditure  for  Public  Education. — Thus  far  only  a 
general  picture  of  the  nature  of  the  county's  public  schools 
has  been  presented.  A  few  statistical  facts  taken  from  the 
reports  of  the  state  superintendents  of  public  instruction 
may  help  the  reader  better  to  realize  the  actual  conditions. 
The  amount  of  public  moneys  paid  out  for  teaching  white 
children  from  1880  to  1883,  inclusive,  averaged  $1.35  an- 
nually per  head  of  the  white  school-population.  For  teach- 
ing colored  children  during  the  same  period,  the  annual 
average  was  $1.28  per  head  of  the  colored  school-popula- 
tion.^ If  the  total  expenditures  for  all  public-school  pur- 
poses in  the  county  for  1880  be  divided  by  the  total  popu- 
lation of  the  county,  according  to  the  1880  census,  it  will 
be  found  that  the  county  spent  that  year  for  the  training  of 
its  youth,  only  26.6  cents  per  head  of  the  entire  population. 
The  average  annual  expenditure  for  all  public-school  pur- 
poses for  the  four-year  period,  1880-3,  was  50.3  cents 
per  head  of  the  entire  population  ^  of  the  county. 

Value  of  Equipment. — Some  conception  of  the  paucity 
of  material  equipment  devoted  to  public  instruction  may  be 
gained  from  the  recorded  value  of  the  public  school  prop- 
erty. In  1880  the  property  set  apart  for  the  use  of  1142 
white  school-children  was  valued  at  $2090,  or  $1.83  per 
head.  If  this  seems  small,  how  about  that  for  colored 
children?    The  public  school  property  for  the  use  of  1844 

1  Cf.  table  17,  p.  283. 

2  The  population  for  1881,  1882,  and  1883  is  arrived  at  by  adding  to 
the  population  of  1880  one-tenth  of  the  increase  between  1880  and  1890, 
for  each  additional  year.  This  method  of  calculating  population  for 
intercensus  years  is  not  strictly  accurate,  but  sufficiently  so  for  the 
present  purpose.  Even  if  a  more  refined  method  were  used  the  ac- 
curacy would  be  more  seeming  than  reaL 


165]  FORMAL  EDUCATION  IN  THE  EIGHTIES  165 

of  these  was  valued  at  $243,  or  21  cents  per  head.^  To  ex- 
press it  in  slightly  different  terms,  for  every  100  white 
children  of  school  age  the  county  owned  land,  buildings  and 
furnishings  to  the  value  of  $183,  and  for  every  100  colored 
children  of  school  age  it  owned  $2 1  worth  of  material  equip- 
ment for  training  them.  Even  in  1884  conditions  were  but 
little  improved.^ 

Attendance. — From  equipment  let  us  turn  to  its  apprecia- 
tion as  evidenced  by  school  attendance.  Judged  by  this 
criterion,  the  negro,  who  had  the  least  to  appreciate,  was  the 
most  keenly  alive  to  its  value.  In  1881  more  than  half  of 
the  colored  school-children  were  enrolled,  and  there  was  an 
average  attendance  of  nearly  one-third  of  the  colored  school 
population.  This  is  low,  to  be  sure,  but  when  we  examine 
the  records  of  the  white  children  we  find  that  they  can  boast 
an  enrollment  of  only  slightly  more  than  one-third  and  an 
average  attendance  of  less  than  one-fifth.  Even  if  the  ratio 
of  average  attendance  to  school  population  be  taken  for  the 
four-year  period,  188 1-4,  the  ratio  is  7.9  per  cent,  higher 
for  colored  than  for  white.^ 

Reasons  for  Small  Attendance. — Some  few  parents  may 
have  kept  their  children  home  because  of  the  poor  quality 
of  the  schools,  but  if  there  were  any  of  this  class  they  con- 
stituted only  a  small  fraction  of  the  total.  Most  parents 
were  ignorant  of  the  value  of  an  education,  and  actually 
did  not  care  if  their  children  did  grow  up  into  manhood  and 
womanhood  knowing  nothing  of  books.  Many  had  the  at- 
titude frequently  heard  expressed  in  words  similar  to  the 

1  Cf.  table  20,  p.  286. 

2  Cf.  tables  18  and  20,  pp.  284  and  286,  respectively.  Aside  from 
the  public  schools  there  was  the  Edenton  Academy,  and  two  or  three 
little  elementary  private  schools  of  about  the  same  rank  as  the  public 
schools. 

3  Cf.  table  19,  p.  285. 


l56  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [i66 

following:  "I  never  had  no  larnin',  un  I  got  along  somehow, 
un  my  younguns  kin  do  de  same/*  Many  kept  their  chil- 
dren home  because  of  false  pride — kept  them  home  for  no 
other  reason  than  that  they  were  unable  to  dress  them  quite 
so  well  and  to  send  them  off  with  quite  so  good  a  lunch  as 
some  other  families  did.  This  same  false  pride  manifested 
in  various  forms  has  been  and  continues  to  be  one  of  the 
greatest  hindrances  to  progress  known  to  the  county.^ 

1  Cf.  supra,  p.  150  et  seq.  and  supra,  p.  255  et  seq. 


CHAPTER  XV 

Formal  Education  in  191 5 

general  statement 

While  there  is  still  an  abundance  of  room  for  improve- 
ment in  the  county's  public  school  system — in  regard  to  ma- 
terial equipment,  qualifications  of  teachers,  attendance,  and 
length  of  term — nevertheless  much  progress  has  been  made 
in  certain  directions  during  the  past  three  and  a  half  de- 
cades, as  may  be  seen  by  referring  to  tables  16-22,  pages 
282  et  seq. 

LOCAL  TAX 

Probably  one  of  the  biggest  steps  forward  is  the  advan- 
tage taken,  by  some,  of  what  may  be  termed  the  "  local- 
option  "  law,  placed  on  the  statute  books  of  the  state  in 
1 90 1.  This  law  enables  a  majority  of  the  qualified  voters 
of  any  district  to  vote  a  special  tax  on  both  polls  and  prop- 
erty to  be  spent  exclusively  in  their  own  district/  A  district 
which  imposes  this  extra  tax  on  itself  is  known  as  a  "  local- 
tax  district."  In  19 14  there  were  six  of  these,  embracing 
six  white  schools  and  four  colored,^  all  of  which  had  come 
into  the  fold  since  1909. 

1  Cf.  Public  Laws  of  North  Carolina,  Session  1901  (Raleigh,  N.  C, 
1901),  ch.  iv,  sec.  72,  pp.  65-66. 

2  There  were  then  nineteen  white  rural  districts  and  fifteen  colored. 
Where  there  is  a  colored  district,  as  a  rule  it  covers  practically  the 
same  territory  as  that  covered  by  the  corresponding  white  district. 
Certain  sections  of  the  county,  however,  have  almost  no  colored  people. 
Thus  it  comes  about  that  there  are  more  white  districts  than  colored. 
The  few  colored  children  in  these  almost  solid  white  districts  are  trans- 
ferred to  others. 

167]  167 


l68  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [163 

By  July  191 5,  one  district  had  dropped  out  of  the  local- 
tax  column,  and  two  others  had  entered  it.  The  one  that 
dropped  out  contained  one  white  school  and  one  colored. 
One  of  those  that  adopted  it  had  no  colored  children  and  the 
other  was  so  completely  gerrymandered  that  almost  all  the 
colored  were  left  out.  There  were  then  in  July  191 5,  seven 
white  rural  schools  and  three  colored,  operating  under  the 
local-tax  system.^ 

SCHOOL  PROPERTY 

Buildings  and  Equipment. — In  the  summer  of  19 14  the 
county  superintendent  made  the  following  statement  to  me : 

Previous  to  1909  the  county  had  no  modern  school  buildings 
in  the  rural  districts.  Since  then  two  one-room,  three  two- 
room,  one  three-room  and  auditorium,  and  one  four-room, 
modern  buildings  have  been  erected  for  the  whites.     All  of 

1  The  facts  of  this  and  the  preceding  paragraph  were  furnished  me 
by  the  county  superintendent.  In  October  1916  (after  the  above  was 
written),  this  same  official  stated  to  me  that  there  then  existed  nine 
rural  local-tax  districts  for  white  and  five  for  colored.  This  local-tax 
territory,  according  to  his  figures,  embraced  67  per  cent  and  28  per  cent 
of  the  white  and  colored  school  population,  respectively. 

The  law  which  made  provision  for  the  levying  of  special  school  taxes 
permits  any  degree  of  gerrymandering  the  ingenuity  of  the  whites  can 
devise.  From  the  foregoing  percentages  it  looks  as  if  they  had  exer- 
cised the  privilege  rather  freely.  The  fact  is,  however,  conditions  are 
even  worse  than  these  figures  would  indicate.  When  the  Edenton 
graded  school  district  was  formed  in  1903  it  was  gerrymandered  to  such 
an  extent  that  in  1910,  when  more  than  59  per  cent  of  the  population 
of  the  incorporated  town  of  Edenton  were  colored,  less  than  22  per  cent 
of  the  school  population  in  the  graded  school  district  were  colored. 
(Calculations  made  from  tables  5  and  19,  pp.  265  and  285  respec- 
tively.) Whole  sections  of  the  town,  where  only  negroes  lived,  were 
cut  out,  while  at  the  same  time  white  territory  from  one  to  two  miles 
beyond  the  incorporated  limits  was  included.  Combining  the  school 
population  of  the  Edenton  graded  schools  with  that  of  the  other  special 
tax  districts,  there  were  included,  in  November  1916,  76  per  cent  of 
the  white  but  only  32  per  cent  of  the  colored. 


169]  FORMAL  EDUCATION  IN  1915  169 

these  are  in  local-tax  districts.     As  yet  there  are  no  modern 
buildings  for  the  colored,  though  some  fairly  good  ones.^ 

All  buildings  for  both  races  are  now  either  ceiled  or 
plastered ;  seventeen  of  the  nineteen  for  the  whites  and  eight 
of  the  fifteen  for  the  colored  are  painted;^  seventeen  of 
those  for  white  are  furnished  complete  with  patent  desks. 
Only  three  of  the  colored  schools  have  any  patent  desks,  and 
only  one  is  furnished  complete  with  them,  while  six  are  fur- 
nished with  home-made  desks,  and  the  remaining  six,  or 
two-fifths,  are  furnished  with  benches.* 

Value. — The  value  of  the  public-school  property  for  the 
white  race  increased  from  $2090  in  1880  to  $30,300  in  1914, 
or  more  than  fourteen  times,  while  the  public  school  prop- 
erty for  the  colored  race  increased  from  $243  in  1880  to 
$6400  in  1 9 14,  or  more  than  twenty-six  times.*  Looked 
at  from  the  standpoint  of  the  number  of  school  children, 
the  value  of  the  property  for  the  whites  increased  from 

1  By  reference  to  table  17,  p.  283,  it  will  be  seen  that  during  the  five 
school  years  1909-10 — 1913-14,  the  average  annual  expenditure  for  new- 
buildings  and  repairs  was  $2330  and  $136  for  white  and  colored,  re- 
spectively. 

According  to  an  interview  with  the  superintendent  in  November  1916, 
since  his  statement  to  me  in  1914,  the  following  additional  construction 
had  been  undertaken:  for  white  children,  one  one-room  and  two  two- 
room  modern  buildings  completed,  and  one  two-room  and  two  three- 
room  modern  building  in  process  of  construction;  for  colored,  one  one- 
room  modern  building  erected  (the  first  and  only  modern  building  in  the 
county  for  colored),  and  one  three-room  building  enlarged  and  re- 
modeled so  as  to  approach  rather  near  state  specifications.  During 
1916  Edenton  put  up  for  its  white  children  a  modern  school-building, 
which,  when  completely  equipped,  will  have  cost  in  the  neighborhood 
of  $30,000. 

2  These  facts  were  furnished  by  the  county  superintendent  in  April 
1915. 

3  Facts  regarding  the  seats  were  taken  from  the  state  superintendent's 
Biennial  Report  for  1912-13  and  1913-14,  which  gives  the  conditions 
existing  at  the  close  of  the  school  year  1913-14. 

*  Cf.  table  17,  p.  283. 


I^o  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [i^q 

$1.83  per  head  in  1880  to  $18.21  per  head  in  19 14,  and  for 
colored  the  increase  was  from  21  cents  per  head  in  1880  to 
$3.48  per  head  in  1914.^ 

EXPENDITURES 

Not  only  has  the  value  of  the  school  property  increased 
several  times  over  since  1880,  but  the  same  is  true  for  "  total 
expenditures."  During  the  period  of  1880-3  the  average 
annual  per-capita  expenditure  for  the  total  school  population 
was  $1.65.  For  the  five-year  period  1909-10 — 191 3- 14 
the  average  was  $4.89.^  The  increase,  however,  seems  to 
have  been  largely  devoted  to  the  white  children.  The  item 
of  expense  for  teaching  is  given  separately  in  both  periods 
and  so  can  be  compared.  For  teaching  whites,  the  average 
annual  expenditure  per  head  of  the  white  school-population 
for  1880-3  was  $1.35,  and  for  the  colored  the  corresponding 
figure  was  $1.28.  During  the  five  school  years  1909-10 — 
191 3-14  the  average  annual  expenditure  was  $5.46  and 
$1.37  for  white  and  colored  respectively.  In  other  words, 
while  the  expenditure  per  head  of  the  white  school-popula- 
tion for  teaching  white  children  for  the  latter  period  was 
more  than  four  times  annually  what  it  was  for  the  former, 
that  for  the  colored  hardly  increased  at  all.  Reduced  to 
percentages,  the  increase  for  whites  was  304.4  per  cent  per 
head  and  for  colored,  7  per  cent. 

TEACHERS 

Training. — ^The  degree  of  fitness  possessed  by  the  teachers 
is  considerably  higher  now  than  in  the  eighties.  During  the 
five-year  period  1909-10 — 191 3-14,  of  the  pubHc  school 
teachers  of  the  county,  30.6  per  cent  of  the  white  and  13.4 
per  cent  of  the  colored  held  college  diplomas,  while  66.9 

1  Cf.  table  20,  p.  286. 


lyi]  FORMAL  EDUCATION  IN  1915  j^l 

per  cent  of  the  white  and  82.4  per  cent  of  the  colored  had 
had  "  normal  training."  ^  It  should  be  added,  however, 
that  the  normal  schools  not  only  do  high  school  work  but 
many  even  do  grade  work,  and  that  a  number  of  the  teach- 
ers have  had  only  a  few  months  even  of  this.  Furthermore, 
the  attendance  at  either  a  two-weeks  teachers'  county  in- 
stitute or  a  four-weeks'  summer  school  (required  of  each 
teacher  every  two  years)  is  reckoned  as  "normal  training." 
It  is  thus  seen  that  the  phrase,  "normal  training,"  is  not 
very  definite  and  frequently  means  very  little.  As  the 
county  superintendent  recently  expressed  it,  "  It  [normal 
training]  is  a  rather  uncertain  quantity."  Notwithstand- 
ing the  improvement  noted  in  the  quality  of  the  teachers, 
most  of  them  are  still  sadly  lacking  in  any  special  training 
for  teaching;  many  have  not  had  more  than  the  equivalent 
of  a  four-year  high-school  course,  and  some  not  even  that.^ 
Feminization. — Formerly  much  of  the  teaching  was  done 
by  men,  but  this  is  no  longer  the  case.  From  1909  to  19 14 
all  white  teachers  in  the  county,  except  the  city  superintend- 
ent and  one  rural  teacher,  were  women.  Since  19 14,  aside 
from  the  city  superintendent,  they  have  all  been  women. 
For  the  most  of  these  latter,  teaching  is  merely  a  method 
of  marking  time  while  waiting  for  the  matrimonial  car. 
Not  expecting  to  follow  very  long  the  teaching  of  the  chil- 
dren of  the  public  for  a  livelihood,  they  quite  naturally  pre- 
fer "  tending  "  a  good  "  prospect  "  to  "  boning  "  for  special 
training  in  public  school  work.  The  colored  schools  still 
have  a  few  male  teachers,  but  here  also,  the  women  are 
gradually  replacing  the  men. 

1  Calculations  made  from  data  found  in  Biennial  Reports,  op.  cit. 

2  In  his  Biennial  Report  for  1912-13  and  1913-14,  p.  25,  the  state  su- 
perintendent says,  "I  am  profoundly  convinced  that  efficient  teaching 
and  efficient  supervision  are  the  most  pressing  needs  of  our  public 
schools  at  this  time." 


1^2  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [172 

Salaries, — The  rate  of  pay  for  white  teachers  has  been 
considerably  increased  since  the  eighties.  Their  average 
monthly  salary  in  the  rural  schools  for  191 3- 14  was  $39, 
an  increase  of  62.6  per  cent  over  that  (23.98)  for  the 
period  188 1-4.  In  some  of  the  local-tax  districts  the  in- 
crease was  still  more.  The  pay  of  colored  teachers  has  in- 
creased very  little,  their  average  monthly  salaries  in  1913- 
14  being  only  $25.43,  as  against  $22.04  during  1881-4,  an 
increase  of  but  15.4  per  cent.  The  regulation  salary  for 
the  white  rural  teacher  holding  a  first-grade  certificate  is 
$40  a  month,  while  for  the  same  grade  colored  teacher  it 
is  only  $27.50.  The  white  and  colored  teachers  with 
second-grade  certificates  receive  $30  and  $22.50  respec- 
tively.^ The  average  amount  paid  to  each  rural  teacher  for 
the  school  year  1913-14  was  $237.90  to  the  white  and  $128.48 
to  the  colored.  The  average  annual  salary  paid  to  teachers 
during  the  five-year  period  1909-10 — 1913-14  was  $186.77 
to  the  white  and  $103.89  to  the  colored.^ 

INSTRUCTION 

Task  of  Teachers. — Uniformity  of  books  is  now  required, 
and  so  the  teacher  is  able  to  place  all  the  pupils  of  the  same 
grade  and  subject  in  one  class.  The  number  of  subjects  she 
may  be  called  upon  to  teach,  however,  has  about  trebled,^ 
and  in  19 14  twenty-two  of  the  thirty-four  rural  schools 

1  Cf.  p.  160,  and  table  21,  p.  287,  for  salaries.  The  percentage  in- 
crease is  calculated  from  the  salaries  at  the  two  different  periods. 

2  Calculations  made  from  data  found  in  the  Biennial  Reports,  op.  cit. 
*"It  [the  law]  requires the  teaching  of  thirteen  subjects  in  the 

one-teacher  schools.  It  is  absolutely  impossible  for  one  teacher,  with 
as  many  children  as  are  to  be  found  in  the  average  rural  school  in 
seven  grades,  to  do  thoro  work  in  so  many  subjects."  State  Super- 
intendent J.  Y.  Joyner,  in  his  Biennial  Report  for  the  years  1912-13  and 
1913-14,  part  i,  p.  31. 


173]  FORMAL  EDUCATION  IN  1915  1 73 

were  still  one-teacher  establishments  ^  holding  from  twenty- 
five  to  thirty-five  recitations  daily.  Such  institutions  of 
learning  can  be  called  graded  schools  only  by  courtesy. 

Short-sightedness. — One  great  drawback  has  been  and 
continues  to  be  the  multiplicity  of  school  districts.  For  the 
whites  there  are  twenty,^  including  Edenton,  and  this  in  a 
county  with  an  area  of  only  178  square  miles,  more  than  13 
per  cent  of  which  is  swamp  in  which  no  one  lives.  Thus, 
on  an  average  each  school  serves  a  territory  of  less  than 
nine  square  miles,  including  the  swamps.  Each  individual 
wants  the  school  located  just  across  the  road  from  him,  and 
if  he  cannot  have  a  fairly  good  school  of  two^  or  three 
teachers  right  at  his  door,  he  frequently  fights  for  the  little 
one-room  school.  An  additional  half-mile  or  mile  nearer 
the  school  means  far  more  to  him  than  does  the  quality  of 
the  school. 

Length  of  Term. — During  the  five-year  period  1909-10 — 
1 91 3-14  the  average  rural  school  term  in  the  regular  dis- 
tricts was  about  twenty  weeks  for  whites  and  eighteen  for 
colored.  In  the  local-tax  districts  the  terms  were  two  or 
three  weeks  longer.  Thus  far,  however,  the  majority  of  the 
local-tax  proceeds  has  gone  for  better  equipment  and  higher- 
priced  teachers. 

Attendance. — In  any  case,  probably  more  significant  than 
the  length  of  the  term  is  the  number  in  attendance.  Taking 
the  whole  county,  for  the  whites,  during  the  period  1909-10 
— 19 1 3-14  the  annual  average  of  the  percentages  which  the 
average  attendance  formed  of  the  school  population  was 

1  Biennial  Report,  op.  cit.,  part  ii,  pp.  155  and  158.  In  October  1916, 
the  county  superintendent  informed  me  that  for  the  school  year  then 
about  to  begin,  nine  of  the  eighteen  white  rural  schools  and  seven  of 
the  fifteen  colored  would  start  with  two  or  more  teachers. 

2  Since  this  was  written,  two  white  districts  have  consolidated,  making 
one  less. 


jy^  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [174 

48.9,  as  against  29.7  for  the  period  188 1-4.  The  corres- 
ponding figures  for  the  colored  were  43.6  and  37.6.  In  the 
rural  schools  the  average  attendance  for  the  five-year  period 
1909-10 — 1 91 3-1 4  was  only  2.1  j>er  cent  less  for  colored 
than  for  whites,  but  in  Edenton  the  difference  was  much 
greater.  Here  were  found  the  highest  for  white  (55.6), 
and  the  lowest  for  colored  (35.4).  The  poor  showing  for 
the  colored,  however,  is  at  least  partially,  if  not  entirely, 
accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  several  of  them  were  at- 
tending some  one  of  the  three  colored  private  schools/  For 
the  later  period  the  attendance  was  better  for  both  races 
than  at  any  time  before,  and  yet  during  this  period,  on 
an  average,  less  than  three-fourths  of  the  school  population 
was  enrolled,  and  less  than  one-half  in  regular  attendance.^ 

PRIVATE  SCHOOLS 

Edenton  has  three  colored  denominational  schools,  whose 
total  enrollment  for  1914-15  was  220.*  Some  thirty  or 
forty  per  cent  of  the  pupils,  however,  come  from  counties 
other  than  Chowan.  One  of  these  schools  does  work  of  such 
quality  that  its  graduates  are  able  to  get  first-grade  certifi- 
cates in  the  county. 

There  are  no  regularly  taught  private  schools  for  whites. 
Occasionally  some  woman  will  run  a  little  "  pay  "  school  for 
small  children  when  the  public  school  is  not  in  session. 

LITERACY 

Since  the  dispelling  of  ignorance  is  the  principal  avowed 
aim  of  the  public-school  system,  the  degree  to  which  this 

1  According  to  the  superintendent  of  one  of  these  schools,  the  three 
had  enrolled'  in  1914-15  about  40  pupils  (some  30  per  cent  of  the  total 
negro  school-population)  from  the  graded-school  district  of  Edenton. 

2  Cf.  table  19,  p.  285. 

3  Enrollment  furnished  in  April  1915  by  the  principal  of  one  of  the 
schools. 


175]  FORMAL  EDUCATION  IN  1915  j^^ 

has  been  effected  may  be  taken  as  a  certain  measure  of  its 
efficiency.  The  one  great  trouble,  however,  in  applying 
this  criterion,  is  that  there  are  statistics  covering  neither  the 
amount  of  ignorance  existing  in  1880,  nor  the  extent  to 
which  it  has  since  been  dissipated.  The  only  thing  bearing  on 
this  point  at  all  concerning  which  we  have  statistics,  is  illiter- 
acy. This  itself  is  very  unsatisfactory,  since  the  test  of  liter- 
acy— ^the  ability  barely  to  read  and  write,  which,  according 
to  the  Bureau  of  the  U.  S.  Census,  places  one  on  the  literacy 
side  of  the  fence — in  no  way  indicates  the  amount  of  formal 
training.  This  test  simply  establishes  a  minimum;  those 
who  have  had  the  equivalent  of  the  first  two  or  three  pri- 
mary grades  are  classed  with  those  who  have  completed  a 
university  course.^  This  test,  however,  is  of  value  in  that 
it  shows  the  number  below  the  minimum,  and  by  comparison 
of  different  periods,  the  trend  of  the  population  as  regards 
literacy. 

The  first  U.  S.  Census  report  on  illiteracy  by  counties  was 
for  1900,  and  so  the  only  facts  which  indicate  the  direction 
and  rate  of  change  are  those  brought  out  by  a  comparison 
of  the  opposite  ends  of  one  decade  only.  In  1900  prac- 
tically two-fifths  (39.6  per  cent)  of  the  native  males  of 
voting  age  were  classed  as  illiterate.  Ten  years  later  this 
proportion  had  decreased  to  slightly  more  than  one-fourth 
(26.1  per  cent).  Among  the  total  native  population  ten 
years  old  and  over,  illiteracy  declined  from  37.6  per 
cent  in  1900  to  18.6  per  cent  in  1910,  a  drop  of 
almost  50  per  cent.  For  the  colored  of  this  age-group, 
the  fall  was  from  51  per  cent  in  1900  to  25.5  per 
cent   in    19 10,    a   fall    of   exactly   50  per   cent.     Of   the 

1 "  In  general  the  *  literate  *  population  in  this  report  should  be  un- 
derstood as  including  all  persons  who  have  had  even  the  slightest 
amount  of  schooling,  while  the  illiterates  represent  persons  who  have 
had  no  schooling  whatever."    U.  S.  Census  report  for  1910,  vol.  i,  p.  1185. 


1^5  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [1^5 

group  ten  to  twenty  years  old,  inclusive,,  only  4.9  per 
cent  in  19 10  were  classed  as  illiterate.^  The  only  gratify- 
ing thing  about  the  foregoing  figures  is  that  they  show 
that  the  dark  cloud  of  illiteracy  is  being  gradually  rolled 
back.  The  facts,  however,  that  one  of  every  four  of 
the  adult  native  males  and  one  of  every  six  of  all  natives 
ten  years  old  and  over  are  unable  to  read  and  write,  pro- 
claim rather  loudly  the  inefficiency  of  the  county's  public 
school  system  in  the  past;  and  the  fact  that  in  19 10  prac- 
tically one  out  of  every  twenty  in  the  group  from  ten  to 
twenty  years  old,  was  unable  to  communicate  with  his 
fellow  human  beings  except  by  personal  intercourse,  would 
seem  to  indicate  that  something  was  very  seriously  lacking 
somewhere,  even  quite  recently.  It  should  be  remembered, 
however,  that  the  few  rural  local- tax  districts  have  all  been 
established  since  1909,  and  that  the  few  modern  buildings  in 
the  county  have  been  erected  since  the  same  date.  These 
developments  clearly  indicate  an  awakening  interest  in  the 
public-schools  on  the  part  of  the  people  whom  the  schools 
are  intended  to  serve,  and  we  may  confidently  expect  the 
next  decennial  census  to  show  the  percentage  of  illiteracy 
among  those  from  ten  to  twenty  years  old  to  be  considerably 
lower  than  it  was  in  1 910. 

READING 

In  closing  this  chapter  a  word  should  be  said  in  regard 
to  the  reading  now  being  done.  The  three  factors — poor 
lights,  the  inability  of  any  but  a  small  per  cent  to  read  with 
ease  and  understanding,  and  the  scarcity  of  anything  attrac- 
tive to  read — chiefly  responsible  for  the  small  amount 
of  reading  in  the  eighties,  have  been  greatly  changed. 
Though   the   light   in   a  great   number  of   the  homes    is 

^  For  the  statistical  facts  of  this  paragraph,  cf.  table  22,  p.  287. 


lyy-j  FORMAL  EDUCATION  IN  1915  •       ^yy 

still  poor,  it  is  vastly  better  than  it  was;  and  in  many  it  is 
comparatively  good.  The  percentage  of  those  able  to  read 
with  both  pleasure  and  profit  to  themselves  has  increased 
probably  fivefold,  while  the  amount  of  reading  matter  has 
increased  probably  an  hundredfold.  Not  only  has  the  num- 
ber of  school  text-books  increased  considerably,  but  in  the 
summer  of  19 14  no  less  than  nineteen  of  the  twenty  public 
schools  for  whites  and  ten  of  the  sixteen  for  colored  had 
small  libraries  of  well-selected  books  of  their  own.^  With 
possibly  one  or  two  exceptions,  these  had  all  been  installed 
since  1909.  Notwithstanding  the  progress  made,  however, 
aside  from  school-books,  hymn-books,  and  Bibles,  at  least 
eighty  per  cent  of  the  homes  still  are  almost,  if  not  alto- 
gether, destitute  of  books.  There  is  also  a  great  dearth  of 
standard  magazines.  These  go  into  not  over  five  per  cent 
of  the  homes. 

The  amount  of  reading  now  done  is  probably  a  hundred 
times  what  it  was  three  and  a  half  decades  ago.  Much  (per- 
haps the  greater  part)  of  this  increase,  however,  has  been 
in  newspaper  reading.  With  the  increased  means  of  know- 
ing the  outside  world  and  the  increased  ability  of  taking  ad- 
vantage of  these  means,  there  has  grown  up  an  increased 
desire  to  know  what  is  going  on  nationally  and  internation- 
ally, as  well  as  locally.  To  satisfy  this  desire,  resort  is  usu- 
ally had  to  the  newspapers.  The  majority  of  home  owners 
and  some  tenants  are  now ,  regular  subscribers  to  one  or 
more  papers.  The  accompanying  list  gives  the  newspapers 
with  the  largest  circulation  in  the  county. 

1  Information  furnished  by  the  county  superintendent. 


178 


CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA 


[178 


Newspaper  Circulation  ^  in  Chowan  County,  N.  C,  During  the  First 
Quarter  of  1915 


Location 

Character 

Circulation 

Publication 

Daily 

Semi- 
weekly 

Weekly 

Advance  ••••••.  .... 

E.  City,N.  C... 
Edenton,  N.  C 
Raleigh,  N.  C. 
Raleigh,  N.C.. 
E.  City,N.  C... 
Norfolk,  Va.... 
Raleigh,  N.C.. 
Raleigh,  N.C. 
Norfolk,  Va  ... 

General    •••«.. 

5 

Albermarle  Observer. 

« 

394 

11 

105 

Biblical  Recorder .... 

Denominational 

Christian  Advocate  • . 

Independent 

Ledger-Dispatch 

News  &  Observer .... 

A  DTimltiirjil    ... 

43 

47 

Progressive  Farmer  . . 
Virginian-Pilot 

Totals 

228 

General    

332 
422 

212 
217 

842 

^  The  circulation  of  these  publications  was  furnished  by  their  respective  man- 
agers. A  few  other  newspapers  have  a  very  small  circulation  here,  but  statistics 
cannot  be  given,  as  the  managers  who  were  written  to  failed  to  reply. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

Social  Customs 

visiting  in  the  eighties 

The  country  people  of  Chowan  were  great  visitors.  It 
was  customary  to  load  up  the  whole  family  (anywhere  from 
four  to  ten  persons),  drive  over  to  a  neighboring  family, 
and  there  spend  the  entire  day,  without  having  previously 
given  any  notice  of  the  intended  visit.  The  favorite  day 
for  such  all-day  visits  was  Sunday,  so  on  Sundays  most 
families  usually  made  ready  for  company  even  though  they 
were  expecting  no  one  in  particular.  Three  or  four  times 
the  amount  of  such  things  as  cakes  and  pies  necessary  for 
the  immediate  family  were  generally  prepared  the  day  be- 
fore. The  other  foods  were  largely  prepared  after  the 
visitors  arrived. 

If  it  was  a  fine  day  and  one  wanted  to  go  visiting,  he 
arose  before  daylight,^  had  an  early  breakfast,  and  got  off 
soon  after  sunrise,  lest  someone  should  come  to  visit  him  and 
catch  him  home  before  he  could  get  away ;  or  lest  the  people 
he  intended  to  visit  should  themselves  go  visiting  before  he 
arrived.  He  stayed  all  day,  generally  for  supper  as  well  as 
for  dinner,  enjoying  the  best  his  host  could  give,  and  fre- 
quently far  better  than  he  was  really  able  to  afford.  Some 
people  liked  company  so  well  and  entertained  so  lavishly  and 
much,  that  they  nearly  "  broke  themselves  up."     It  was 

1  Early  stirring  was  necessary  for  a  woman  who  had  breakfast  to 
cook,  four  or  five  children  to  wash  and  dress,  and  herself  to  "  fix  up," 
before  starting. 

179]  179 


l8o  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [igo 

nothing  extraordinary  for  some  families  to  have  from  ten 
to  twelve  persons  for  both  dinner  and  supper  of  a  Sunday, 
which  in  turn  meant  from  two  to  six  extra  horses  to  feed. 

VISITING  IN  191 5 

Friends  and  relatives  still  drop  in  on  each  other  un- 
announced, but  more  and  more  is  it  becoming  the  custom  to 
inform  one's  prospective  host  of  an  intended  visit.  And 
while  visiting  still  continues,  the  amount  done  is  greatly 
reduced.  This  is  doubtless  largely  due  to  the  more  widely 
spread  ability  to  read,  and  the  far  greater  supply  of  reading- 
matter.  Now,  one  does  not  even  have  to  go  from  home  for 
the  neighborhood  gossip,  since  this  is  furnished  by  the 
county  weekly.  Thus,  under  present  conditions  many  can 
get  more  information  by  staying  at  home  than  they  can  by 
visiting.  As  for  social  intercourse,  there  are  abundant  op- 
portunities for  that  at  public  gatherings,  of  which  there  are 
many  more  now  than  formerly. 

GANGS  IN  THE  EIGHTIES 

Gang  Defined. — Whenever  a  farmer  had  a  piece  of  work 
which  was  too  great  for  his  own  force  to  tackle  effectively, 
he  had  a  generally  recognized  right,  provided  he  himself 
was  of  the  neighborly  sort,  to  call  for  free  assistance  from 
as  many  of  his  neighbors  as  were  necessary  to  its  accomplish- 
ment. A  group  of  people  thus  brought  together  was  known 
as  a  "  gang."  The  essential  distinction  between  such  a 
gathering  and  any  other  body  of  people  laboring  together, 
was  that  a  member  of  a  gang  expected  no  financial  reward. 
By  helping  his  neighbors  he  simply  retained  their  good 
wishes  and  sustained  his  own  right  to  call  upon  them  for 
aid  on  similar  occasions.  The  only  direct  expense  upon  the 
person  having  a  gang  was  the  cost  of  the  food  and  drink, 
it  being  customary  for  him  to  furnish  plenty  of  liquors — 


l8l]  SOCIAL  CUSTOMS  l8i 

of  which  both  sexes  and  all  ages  freely  partook — and  plenty 
of  something  good  to  eat.  It  was  in  setting  the  table  on 
such  occasions  that  good  housewives  had  an  opportunity  to 
prove  their  quality.  These  were  the  times  when  they  made, 
upheld,  or  lost  their  reputation  of  being  the  "  right  sort." 

Log-rolling.  —  Log-rollings  offered  the  best  opportunity 
of  any  of  the  gang  meetings  for  one  to  try  out  his  skill  and 
strength  against  others  of  his  neighborhood,  and  were  especi- 
ally attractive  to  the  young  and  the  physically  vigorous.  The 
logs  were  not  really  "  rolled,"  but  toted — picked  up  on  five- 
foot  hand  sticks,  two  men  to  the  stick,  and  carried.  When 
a  man  wanted  to  demonstrate  his  physical  superiority  over 
another,  he  challenged  the  other  to  tote  with  him.  If  his 
challenge  was  accepted,  when  they  got  under  a  heavy  turn 
each  would  try  to  lift  so  much  from  his  end  of  the  stick 
that  the  other  could  not  "  come  "  (lift  his  end),  or  if  he  did 
come,  would  eventually  be  either  pulled  down,  or  made  to 
drop  it.  When  a  fellow  could  not  come  up  with  his  end, 
or  was  pulled  down,  he  was  said  to  be  "  mashed." 

Hog-killing. — At  all  big  gangs  a  few  of  the  neighboring 
women  generally  were  asked  to  come  over  and  help  cook 
and  serve.  ^  At  hog-killings,  however,  women  as  well  as 
men  were  needed  to  work,  and  hence  were  asked.  They 
'"rid  the  chitlings  "  (stripped  the  fat  from  the  entrails), 
helped  wash  them  (the  washing  was  often  done  at  some 
running  branch  where,  if  the  weather  was  cold,  the  ice  had 
to  be  broken  in  order  to  get  to  the  water),  then  turned  and 
rewashed  in  warm  water  those  that  were  to  be  used  as 
casings  for  the  sausage  meat. 

About  the  only  time  men  and  women  were  ever  weighed 
was  at  hog-killings.  After  the  hogs  were  all  dressed  and 
weighed,  each  man  would  hang  on  to  the  balance  hook  and 

1  This  was  necessary,  especially  if  there  were  no  girls  in  the  family, 
since  comparatively  few  families  in  the  rural  districts  had  any  servants. 


l82  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [182 

have  himself  weighed.  Then  the  women  would  be  called 
out.  Not  being  supposed  to  be  able  to  hang  on,  as  did  the 
men,  a  rope  swing  would  be  attached  to  the  balance  hook 
and  the  women  were  weighed  sitting  in  this  swing. 

General  A  ttitude  Towards  Gangs. — ^The  chief  gangs  were 
house-movings,  log-rollings,  brick-settings,  and  hog-killings. 
Few  people  objected  to  going  to  legitimate  gangs — gangs 
such  as  those  just  mentioned.  In  fact,  a  person  felt  some- 
what snubbed  and  piqued  if  all  those  around  him  were  asked 
to  a  gang  and  he  was  not.  It  meant,  in  substance,  that  the 
fellow  having  the  gang  felt  more  or  less  unfriendly  towards 
him  and  hence  cared  to  have  no  more  dealings  with  him  for 
the  time  being.  A  gang,  however,  to  cut  a  man's  wood,  or 
to  maul  his  rails — except  in  special  cases,  for  instance  where 
he  had  had  a  long  spell  of  sickness  —  was  not  considered 
legitimate,  and  hence  was  looked  upon  with  disfavor.  Such 
gangs  were  not  customary,  and  it  was  felt  that  anyone  hav- 
ing them  was  simply  trying  to  get  out  of  doing  his  work 
himself. 

Gangs,  while  called  together  to  do  some  piece  of  work, 
were,  nevertheless,  quite  enjoyable.  They  were  looked  upon 
as  a  variety  of  outing,  or  picnic  to  which  the  great  majority 
of  people,  if  not  exceedingly  busy  with  their  own  work,  were 
fond  of  going.  They  were  truly  social  functions  which  af- 
forded much  real,  wholesome  pleasure  and  diversion.  This 
is  evidenced  by  the  local  expression,  "  hog-killing  time." 
To  say  to  a  host  or  hostess,  on  taking  leave,  "  I've  had  a  hog- 
killing  time  "  means  "  I  have  been  most  delightfully  enter- 
tained, and  have  enjoyed  myself  immensely."  Why  should 
gangs  not  be  enjoyable  occasions?  The  conditions  to  make 
them  so  approached  the  ideal — a  social  crowd,  an  oppor- 
tunity to  match  one's  skill  and  strength  with  that  of  his 
fellows ;  enough  work  to  create  a  good  appetite  and  stimu- 
late a  vigorous  digestion,  the  best  things  to  eat  and  drink 


183]  SOCIAL  CUSTOMS  183 

which  the  section  afforded,  always  some,  frequently  not  a 
few  of  the  fairer  sex,  the  feeling  that  one  was  doing  his 
duty  by  his  neighbors,  and  the  knowledge  that  his  aid  was 
in  reality  aid  being  stored  up  against  the  time  when  he  him- 
self should  have  need  of  the  combined  efforts  of  several. 

GANGS  IN  191 5 

Gangs  now  are  largely  a  thing  of  the  past.  Most  of  the 
timber  has  been  cut,  and  it  if  had  not  been,  no  one  would 
think  of  heaping  it  up  and  burning  it,  since  there  is  a  market 
for  it.  Now,  when  one  is  going  to  clear  a  piece  of  land,  he 
first  hauls  off  the  mill  timber,  if  any,  and  then  cuts  the 
smaller  stuff  up  for  fire-wood;  so  there  are  no  more  logs 
to  roll. 

Bricks  are  no  longer  made  around  through  the  country 
where  they  happen  to  be  needed,  but  instead  are  now  shippe<i 
in  by  people  who  follow  brick-making  as  a  business,  and  who 
set  their  own  bricks  as  they  make  them.  So  there  are  no 
more  brick-settings  to  go  to. 

House-moving  gangs  have  also  become  far  less  frequent. 
In  the  first  place,  now,  when  a  person  is  going  to  build,  he 
usually  does  more  planning  than  was  customary  years  ago, 
hence  is  not  so  likely  to  find  within  a  few  years  that  his 
buildings  need  to  be  rearranged.  This  makes  far  less 
moving  necessary  than  formerly.  In  the  second  place, 
many  of  those  who  have  houses  to  move,  now  hire  it  done 
by  some  one  who  is  equipped  for  such  work. 

Hog-killings  are  the  principal  gangs  left.  Even  these 
have  lost  much  of  their  erstwhile  glory  and  social  import- 
ance. The  chief  stimulator  of  hilariousness,  gaiety,  and 
good- feeling  at  all  gangs  was  liquor.  The  knowledge  of 
its  presence  was  to  a  great  many  the  one  inducement  to  at- 
tend. With  the  conversion  of  some  to  total  abstinence  and 
the  adoption  of  state-wide  prohibition,  strong  drink  has 


l84  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [184 

both  lost  favor  and  become  somewhat  difficult  to  obtain. 
For  these  reasons  some  no  longer  have  liquor  at  their  gangs. 
Others  would  gladly  dispense  with  it,  but  serve  it  in  order 
to  have  sufficient  help  and  to  keep  the  help  in  good  humor. 
In  fact  not  a  few  claim  that  it  is  absolutely  essential  to 
let  it  be  known  that  there  will  be  plenty  of  liquor,  if  one 
wants  plenty  of  help. 

MARRIAGES  IN  THE  EIGHTIES 

Ceremony. — The  marriage  ceremony  was  a  very  plain, 
simple  affair.  If  the  match  was  acquiesced  in  by  the  par- 
ents of  the  bride,  the  function  nearly  always  took  place  at 
her  home — church  weddings  occurring  only  at  rare  inter- 
vals, and  in  the  rural  sections  hardly  at  all.^  As  a  matter  of 
course,  at  least  a  brief  ceremony  was  absolutely  essential, 
in  order  that  the  law  be  satisfied,  but  this  ordinarly  lasted 
not  over  five  to  eight  minutes.  At  the  appointed  hour,  if 
everything  was  ready,  the  prospective  bride  and  groom  (the 
bride  leaning  on  the  groom's  arm),  followed  by  from  two  to 
six  other  couples  (known  as  "  waiters  ''),  marched  into  the 
room  where  the  guests  had  assembled.  The  person  officiat- 
ing then  either  read,  or  repeated  from  memory,  a  short  form, 
and  pronounced  them  man  and  wife.  There  was  no  music, 
no  flowers  or  other  decorations,  no  ring — in  fact,  this  per- 
formance, aside  from  the  accompanying  "waiters"  (fre- 
quently these  were  omitted),  was  reduced  pretty  close  to  the 
bare  essentials. 

Invitations. — Sometimes  a  general  invitation  was  sent  out 
for  everybody  in  the  neighborhood  to  come  over  and  "  see 
the  thing  well  done,"  and  frequently  the  women  of  the 
neighborhood  received  special  verbal  invitations,  but  written 
and  engraved  invitations  were  seldom  used.     In  any  case,  it 

1  Cf.  Marriage  Register  of  Chowan  County,  which  is  preserved  in 
the  county  court  house. 


185]  SOCIAL  CUSTOMS  185 

was  customary  for  every  one  who  learned  of  an  expected 
marriage  to  attend  the  function  if  he  cared  to.  The  men 
always  did  this,  and  the  women  too,  if  they  knew  no  other 
women  of  the  neighborhood  had  been  specially  invited.  If 
a  meal  was  to  be  served  after  the  ceremony,  unless  there  had 
been  a  general  invitation,  only  those  specially  bidden  re- 
mained for  it.  If  a  couple  wanted  to  be  married  privately, 
their  only  method  was  to  keep  the  time  and  place  a  secret. 

Festivities. — Probably  a  majority  served  meals  (either 
dinner,  or  supper,  depending  upon  the  time  of  day)  to  at 
least  a  few  of  their  close  friends  and  relatives,  while  some 
made  an  effort  to  feed  everybody  who  came.  Frequently, 
however,  the  ceremony  was  performed  after  supper  time 
(supper  here  comes  about  sunset,  and  not  in  the  early  morn- 
ing hours  between  midnight  and  daybreak),  which  did  away 
with  the  expense  of  feeding.  When  the  marriage  was  at 
night,  the  young  people  often  would  stay  around  till  bed 
time  and  have  a  few  games,  or,  if  the  "  old  folks  "  would 
permit,  a  dance.  Occasionally  the  more  wealthy  would  have 
two  or  three  days  of  feasting  and  frolicking.  Except  in 
very  rare  instances,  the  only  honeymoon  trips  ever  taken  was 
the  trip  from  the  home  of  the  bride  to  the  place  where  the 
two  were  going  to  try  out  their  new  venture. 

Pay  of  Functionaries.  —  The  ceremony  was  performed 
both  by  ministers  of  the  Gospel  and  by  justices  of  the  peace. 
Neither  of  these  functionaries  ever  made  any  charge,  and  it 
was  a  rare  thing  for  either  of  them  to  receive  any  remuner- 
ation ^  whatsoever,  other  than  the  verbal  thanks  of  the 
groom,  and  not  always  that.  Most  people  seemed  to  think 
that  it  was  conferring  a  favor  on  a  man  to  ask  him  to  drive 
his  own  horse  five  or  ten  miles  in  the  cold  (more  than  half 

1  From  interviews  with  various  people  on  this  point  I  should  estimate 
that  less  than  five  per  cent  in  the  early  eighties  paid  anything  to  either 
the  magistrate  or  the  minister. 


l85  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [i86 

of  the  marriages  took  place  during  the  winter  months)  to 
perform  free  a  marriage  service. 

Choice  of  Functionaries. — ^To  be  married  by  a  minister 
was  by  some  few  considered  more  genteel.  With  most 
couples,  however,  the  question  of  who  should  legalize  the  life 
co-partnership  was  of  little  or  no  concern,  the  deciding  fac- 
tor being  that  of  convenience.  This  is  evidenced  by  the  fact 
that  during  the  period  1878-1882,  46.2  per  cent  of  the  white 
couples  ^  embarked  for  the  momentous  cruise  without  the 
presence  of  any  divine  to  make  intercession  in  their  behalf. 
And  yet,  so  far  as  any  one  was  ever  able  to  discover,  those 
who  were  handed  their  clearance  papers  by  representatives 
of  the  Gospel  weathered  the  storms  on  the  matrimonial  sea 
no  less  badly  than  did  those  who  had  received  theirs  from 
the  hands  of  the  representatives  of  the  law.  Furthermore^ 
so  far  as  success  in  the  present  life  was  concerned,  it  seemed 
to  make  little  difference  whether  one  sponged  on  the  min- 
ister or  on  the  magistrate. 

MARRIAGES  IN    I915 

Present-day  Eclat. — The  words  ''pomp"  and  ''formality" 
denote  the  trend  of  a  considerable  number  of  the  present- 
day  marriages.  In  many  cases  there  are  decorations,  flow- 
ers, flower-girls,  music — things  which  formerly  were  hardly 
known,  especially  in  the  rural  sections.  Many  now 
send  out  either  written  or  engraved  invitations  —  another 
innovation. 

There  probably  are  fewer  wedding  dinners  and  suppers 

^  This  figure  is  calculated  from  the  records  of  the  Marriage  Register 
op.  cit.  Only  36  per  cent  of  the  colored  marriages  within  the  same 
period  were  performed  by  justices.  This  small  per  cent  I  attribute  not 
to  any  special  prejudice  in  favor  of  ecclesiastical  marriages,  but  rather 
to  a  certain  commendable  pride  in  patronizing  their  own  color.  If 
married  by  a  justice,  it  usually  meant  being  married  by  a  white  person, 
while  if  married  by  a  minister,  one  of  their  own  color  could  be  secured. 


187]  SOCIAL  CUSTOMS  187 

now  than  in  the  past,  and  the  guests  to  those  that  occur 
usually  are  only  those  who  have  received  a  previous  special 
invitation.  Furthermore,  these  invitations  are  being  more 
and  more  restricted  to  intimate  friends.  Thus,  the  informal, 
free-and-easy  style  of  the  "  good  old  days  "  is  fast  passing 
away,  and  stiffness  and  formality  are  being  substituted  in 
its  place.  Now  and  then  a  couple  go  on  a  two  or  three 
days'  trip,  long  enough  for  the  local  sheet  to  take  cogniz- 
ance of  it,  with  the  probable  result  that  some  of  their  ac- 
quaintance who  know  no  better,  are  led  to  believe  that  they 
are  making  an  extended  bridal  tour.  The  only  customary 
bridal  tour,  however,  still  continues  to  be  the  trip  from 
the  place  where  the  couple  are  married  to  the  place  where 
they  are  to  start  their  new  home. 

Choice  of  Functionaries.  —  Fewer  marriage  ceremonies 
among  the  whites  are  performed  by  the  clergy  now  than 
thirty  years  ago,  members  of  this  profession  at  present 
officiating  on  less  than  two-fifths  of  such  occasions.^  Some 
might  interpret  this  fact  as  meaning  that  the  people  are 
coming  to  have  less  regard  for  the  sanction  of  the  church 
in  matrimony.  I  think,  however,  that  such  an  interpretation 
would  be  entirely  false,  for,  as  pointed  out  on  page  186,  a 
civil  marriage  in  the  eighties  was  just  as  acceptable  to  the 
vast  majority  of  people  as  was  an  ecclesiastical  one^ — con- 
venience usually  being  the  determining  factor  as  to  which 
kind  a  couple  elected.  Those  of  the  present  day  who  apply 
to  a  minister  to  "  tie  the  knot,"  when  it  is  not  a  mere  matter 
of  convenience,  do  so,  in  most  cases,  because  it  is  considered 

1  During  the  five-year  period  November  i,  1909  to  October  31,  1914, 
only  38.9  per  cent  of  marriages  among  the  white  race  were  "solemnized" 
by  the  special  representatives  of  the  church.  During  the  same  period, 
80.9  per  cent  of  marriages  among  the  colored  people  were  graced  by  the 
presence  of  ministers.  These  calculations  are  made  from  the  Marriage 
Register,  op.  cit.  Regarding  the  high  percentage  of  ecclesiastical  wed- 
dings among  the  colored,  cf.  supra,  footnote,  p.  186. 


l88  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [igg 

more  fashionable  to  have  a  minister.  When  the  magistrate 
officiates,  about  all  he  does  is  to  either  read,  or  parrot  off,  a 
short,  long-since  out-of-date  service,  during  the  course  of 
which  he  obtains  the  formal  declaration  of  the  couple  to 
live  together  as  man  and  wife  "  so  long  as  you  both 
shall  live."  The  preacher,  while  using  essentially  the  same 
archaic  form  as  does  the  justice,  nevertheless  makes  his 
service  longer  and  more  ceremonious,  and  so  lends  a  bit 
more  eclat  to  the  occasion. 

The  real  reason  for  the  falling-off  in  the  percentage  of 
services  conducted  by  parsons  is  an  economic  one.  It  is  now 
becoming  the  custom  to  fee  them  when  they  assist  at  such 
functions.  Probably  seventy-five  per  cent  of  those  married 
by  parsons  today  make  some  compensation.  The  magistrate 
is  also  remembered  now  by  some  twenty  per  cent  ^  of  those 
whom  he  joins  together.  There  is  a  big  difference,  however, 
between  feeing  a  magistrate  and  feeing  a  parson.  If  the 
former,  in  marrying  a  couple,  is  not  hindered  more  than 
two  or  three  hours,  and  receives  as  much  as  a  dollar  for 
his  trouble,  he,  as  well  as  the  couple  served,  feels  that  he 
has  been  amply  rewarded ;  not  being  accustomed  to  having 
gifts  showered  upon  him,  he  is  well  pleased  if  he  is  liber- 
ally compensated  for  his  time.  On  the  other  hand,  there 
seems  to  be  a  feeling  among  both  the  clergy  and  the  people 
that  when  the  preacher  "  joins  a  couple  in  the  holy  bonds 
of  matrimony,"  he  should  be  feed  not  according  to  the 
services  rendered,  but  according  to  the  financial  ability  of 
those  served.  Some  even  go  so  far  as  to  intimate  that 
the  size  of  the  fee  paid  to  the  preacher  by  the  groom  is  a 
just  measure  of  the  latter's  appreciation  of  his  newly- 
acquired  mate.  Because  of  these  absurd,  though  rather  gen- 
eral, impressions,  one  who  would  hand  a  dollar  to  a  justice 

1  This  percentage,  as  well  as  that  for  ministers,  is  an  estimate  based 
on  interviews  with  those  who  perform  such  services. 


189]  SOCIAL  CUSTOMS  jgg 

and  feel  that  he  was  fully  discharging  all  obligations,  would 
feel  quite  mean  and  stingy  if  he  should  donate  less  than 
five  dollars  to  a  minister  for  a  similar  service.  Thus  it 
comes  about  that  one  who  wants  to  pay  for  what  he  gets, 
and  at  the  same  time  wants  full  value  for  what  he  gives, 
goes  to  a  justice,  unless  he  wants  his  marriage  to  be  a  sort 
of  society  function. 

FUNERALS  AND  BURIALS  IN  THE  EIGHTIES 

Popularity. — Strange  as  it  may  at  first  blush  seem,  burials 
were  much  more  largely  attended  than  were  marriages. 
There  were  some  good  reasons,  however,  for  this  seeming 
anomaly.  Burials  always  came  in  the  afternoon,  which 
made  them  much  more  convenient  for  the  women  and  chil- 
dren to  attend  than  marriages,  which,  as  already  noted,  not 
infrequently  occurred  at  night,  and  occasionally  in  the  fore- 
noon. Another  reason  for  a  large  attendance  at  a  burial,  if 
the  deceased  was  an  older  person,  was  that  usually  he  was 
far  more  widely  known  than  was  a  beardless  youth  leading 
an  eighteen-year-old  to  the  altar,  and  that  all  who  knew 
him  well  felt  it  their  bounden  duty  to  attend  the  last  rites 
and  ceremonies  performed  in  his  behalf.  Again,  a  large 
number  of  people  actually  felt  that,  "It  is  better  to  go  to 
the  house  of  mourning  than  to  go  to  the  house  of  feasting."  ^ 
Then,  too,  most  families  tried  to  have  a  "  funeral "  ^  when 
one  of  their  members  died,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that 
this  frequently  meant  the  driving  of  twenty-five  or  thirty 
miles  to  get  the  promise  of  a  preacher,  who  in  turn  had  to 
drive  another  twenty-five  or  thirty  miles  in  getting  to  and 

1  Ecclesiastics  vii :  2.  The  text  was  frequently  quoted  on  such  oc- 
casions. 

2  There  is  a  distinction  made  in  this  county  between  a  "  burial "  and 
a  "  funeral."  The  former  is  simply  an  interment,  while  the  latter  is  the 
service  held  by  some  minister  of  the  Gospel. 


ipo  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [190 

from  the  place.  These  funeral  services  were  an  added  at- 
traction, as  the  people  were  fond  of  being  preached  to. 

CoiUns, — Practically  all  coffins  were  made  in  the  neigh- 
borhood where  they  were  used.  A  few  carpenters  made  a 
speciality  of  this  work  and  so  kept  lumber  on  hand  for  the 
purpose.  The  higher-priced  coffins  were  made  of  poplar, 
while  the  others  were  made  of  pine.  On  rare  occasions 
they  were  made  of  walnut,  which  was  considered  very  fine. 
All  cases  were  of  the  common  yellow  pine. 

Preparing  the  Corpse. — When  a  person  died,  some  of  the 
neighbors  (men  if  it  was  a  male  person  other  than  a  small 
child,  and  women  if  it  was  a  female  person  or  child)  would 
come  in,  wash,  dress,  lay  out  the  corpse,  and  measure  it 
for  its  final  earthly  compartment. 

Sitting  Up  With  the  Corpse. — If  the  death  occurred  after 
midnight,  it  was  considered  bad  form  to  bury  the  body  until 
the  afternoon  of  the  second  day  following,  since  to  do  so 
earlier  was  thought  to  show  too  great  a  desire  to  get  rid 
of  it.  The  night  the  corpse  lay  in  the  house  several  of  the 
neighbors  would  come  in  and  sit  around  and  talk  till  bed- 
time. All  would  then  go  home,  except  two  or  three  who 
remained  to  sit  up  with  the  corpse  all  night.  The  immediate 
family  went  to  bed  early. 

Boxing  the  Corpse. — On  the  day  of  the  burial  some  of  the 
neighbors  would  dig  the  grave,  and  one  of  them  would  go 
for  the  coffin.  After  the  crowd  had  assembled  (anywhere 
from  one-thirty  to  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon)  at  the 
former  home  of  the  deceased,  six  men  (women,  if  the  body 
was  that  of  a  woman),  one  each  at  the  head  and  foot 
of  the  body  and  two  on  each  side,  with  towels  under  it, 
would  lift  it  from  the  bed  and  place  it  in  the  coffin.  Next 
came  the  funeral  sermon,  if  there  was  to  be  one. 

Funerals. — In  delivering  the  sermon  the  preacher  usually 
stood  either  in  the  door  of  the  house  or  on  the  piazza.     The 


191  ]  SOCIAL  CUSTOMS  191 

women  of  the  audience  stayed  either  on  the  inside  of  the 
house  or  on  the  piazza  if  there  was  sufficient  room,  the  men 
remaining  on  the  outside.  Ordinarily  there  were  some 
rough  planks  placed  on  blocks  in  the  yard  for  the  people 
to  sit  on  while  listening  to  the  sermon. 

The  funeral  sermon  consisted  of  three  parts:  the  re- 
counting of  the  admirable  qualities  of  the  dead — the  other 
kind  being  slurred  over,  as  a  matter  of  course;  the  con- 
soling of  the  bereaved  relatives;  the  exhortation  to  the 
neighbors  and  friends  to  be  always  prepared  for  death, 
which,  they  were  assured,  "  cometh  as  a  thief  in  the  night." 

It  not  infrequently  happened  that  a  preacher  could  not 
be  secured  to  perform  the  funeral  ceremony  at  the  time  of 
burial.  In  such  a  case  the  funeral  occasionally  was  preached 
at  church  several  months,  and  even  years,  afterwards.  Thus 
it  was  quite  possible  for  a  man  to  take  his  second  wife  to 
his  first  wife's  funeral.  Usually,  however,  when  he  had 
good  prospects  of  a  recruit  to  take  the  place  of  her  who 
had  fallen  by  his  side,  he  bestirred  himself  and  concluded 
the  funeral  rites  of  his  first  mate  before  entering  upon  the 
wedding  festivities  of  his  second,  and  so  obviated  what 
might  have  been  a  rather  embarrassing  situation. 

Burials. — After  the  funeral  most  of  the  assemblage  went 
to  the  grave.  If  this  was  near,  as  it  often  was,  five  or  six 
men  would  carry  the  corpse,  otherwise  it  was  put  into  a  cart 
and  hauled.  When  the  grave  was  close  by,  the  coffin  was 
usually  opened  at  the  house  so  that  every  one  who  cared  to 
could  take  one  last  look  at  the  deceased,  but  if  the  grave  was 
some  distance  away,  this  part  of  the  ceremony  took  place 
there.  Occasionally  the  dead  was  viewed  at  both  the  home 
and  the  grave. 

The  principal  service  was  at  the  house,  but  after  the  corpse 
was  lowered  into  the  grave  there  frequently  was  another 
brief   ceremony,   provided  a  preacher  had   been   secured. 


192  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [ic|2 

After  this  was  over,  the  clods  would  begin  to  rattle  upon 
the  grave  planks,  the  by-standers  taking  turns  at  shoveling 
in  the  dirt;  and  soon  the  matter  of  giving  out  the  allotted 
"  six  feet  of  earth  "  would  be  completed.  Then  the  crowd, 
rather  serious  and  sorrowful,  would  slowly  turn  away. 

Funeral  and  Burial  Expenses.  —  The  necessary  expense 
connected  with  leaving  this  "  sinful  world,"  provided  one 
succeeded  in  passing  out  without  running  up  a  heavy  doctor's 
bill,  was  rather  small.  There  was  no  carriage  hire,  since 
everyone  furnished  his  own  conveyance,  or  else  walked.  As 
for  flowers,^  no  one  ever  thought  of  having  them  at  a 
funeral.  The  preacher,  if  one  was  obtained,  was  supposed 
to  throw  in  his  services  as  did  all  the  others  who  assisted; 
and  so  the  only  financial  cost  to  the  family,  save  doctors^ 
bills,  was  the  price  of  the  coffin,  the  coffin-case,  and  a  few 
rough  planks  to  place  in  the  grave  just  above  the  case.  One 
could  have  an  elaborate  funeral  at  a  cost  of  from  twelve  to 
fifteen  dollars,  a  less  pretentious  one  at  from  eight  to  ten 
dollars,  and  a  modest  one  for  as  little  as  six  or  seven  dollars. 

Grave-yards. — There  has  never  been  a  general  cemetery 
in  the  county,  except  in  Edenton,  but  simply  family  burying- 
grounds,  or  *'  grave-yards."  The  corpse  rarely  was  carried 
more  than  two  miles,  and  in  a  large  number  of  cases — 
probably  forty  per  cent — was  interred  on  the  farm  where 
death  occurred. 

Grave-marks. — Some  families  placed  little  roofs  over  the 
graves  of  their  dead  members.  Some  set  up  wooden  slabs 
(which,  if  of  good  quality,  would  last  twenty-five  or  thirty 
years)  having  the  name  and  date  of  birth  and  of  death 
carved  thereon.  Only  a  very  few,  the  comparatively  well- 
to-do,  indulged  in  real  tombstones  displaying  fancy  mottoes 

1  Only  once,  till  within  the  last  few  years,  did  I  ever  see  any  flowers 
at  a  funeral,  and  these  were  sent  out  with  a  corpse  shipped  from  a 
town  thirty  miles  away. 


193]  SOCIAL  CUSTOMS  193 

and  proclaiming  the  good  qualities  of  their  relatives  who 
had  crossed  the  great  divide. 

FUNERALS  AND  BURIALS  IN   I915 

Ceremoniousness. — Burials,  like  marriages,  are  tending 
away  from  the  simple  style  of  procedure  and  towards  the 
formal  and  ceremonious.  These  now  are  occasions  for 
showing  off  and  attempting  to  make  an  impression  upon 
one's  neighbors.  The  near  relatives  frequently  dress  in 
mourning,  a  custom  which  until  recently  was  unknown  in 
the  rural  sections,  and  the  dead  are  laid  to  rest  beneath 
wreathes  of  flowers. 

No  longer  is  the  body  carted  off  to  the  grave  in  a  pine 
box  hurriedly  put  together  by  some  local  carpenter.  The 
coffin  now  is  not  a  coffin,  but  a  "  casket,"  ^  and  factory  made. 
It  is  very  probable  that  this  factory-made  article  is  far  less 
durable  than  the  one  used  a  few  years  back,  but  it  looks  a 
little  better,  costs  considerably  more,  and  so  everybody  is 
satisfied.  It  is  frequently  brought  out  in  a  two-horse  hearse 
from  one  of  the  little  neighboring  towns.  The  undertaker 
himself  usually  drives  the  hearse,  and  acts  as  funeral  direc- 
tor, a  function  formerly  performed  by  volunteers  from 
among  the  neighbors.  Pallbearers  are  no  longer  always 
those  who  happen  to  be  standing  near  at  the  time,  but  often 
are  especially  selected.  Occasionally  these  are  selected  sev- 
eral hours  beforehand  and  notified.  In  other  days,  any  one 
who  felt  so  disposed  took  right  hold,  with  no  hesitation 
whatever,  and  helped  to  do  anything  that  was  to  be  done. 

Other  Changes  in  Former  Customs. — It  used  to  be  the 

1  As  is  well  known,  the  difference  between  a  coffin  and  a  casket  is  the 
shape.  Many,  however,  use  the  term  "  casket "  either  because  they 
think  it  a  more  polished  term  for  coffin,  or  else  because  they  think  a 
casket  is  a  high-grade  coffin.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  though,  not  a  few- 
caskets  are  now  used. 


1^4  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [194 

custom  for  no  one  who  was  in  anyway  related,  either  by 
blood  or  marriage,  to  the  dead,  to  have  anything  to  do  with 
the  body,  either  as  pall-bearer  or  otherwise.  Just  the  re- 
verse of  this  custom  now  seems  to  be  coming  into  favor. 
Another  custom  that  is  coming  in  is  the  feeing  of  the  man 
who  preaches  the  funeral.  Probably  ten  per  cent  of  the 
families  having  funerals  now  make  some  little  donation,  say 
from  one  to  five  dollars  (sometimes  a  joint  of  meat,  or  other 
provisions),  to  the  minister  officiating. 

The  introduction  of  the  foregoing  innovations  seems  to 
be  robbing  funerals  of  much  of  the  somber  enjoyment  they 
formerly  furnished  the  people. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

The  Church  in  the  Eighties 

popularity 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  attitude  of  the  early  settlers 
in  this  section  towards  God,  the  church,  and  religion,^  cer- 
tain it  is  that  by  the  beginning  of  the  period  under  discussion 
the  attitude  of  the  people  generally  was  most  favorable. 
This  is  evidenced  by  the  fact  that  50.6  per  cent  of  the 
county's  population  in  1890^  were  church  communicants, 
while  only  45.8  per  cent  of  the  population  were  above  nine- 
teen years  old,  and  57.1  per  cent  above  fourteen  years  old.^ 
Of  the  communicants,  96.7  per  cent  were  either  Methodists 
or  Baptists,*  both  of  which  denominations  enroll  as  mem- 
bers only  those  who,  after  supposedly  reaching  the  age  of 
discretion,  make  application  of  their  own  free  will  and  ac- 
cord to  be  taken  in.  Both,  also,  frequently  "  withdraw  fel- 
lowship from,"  or  "  turn  out,"  members  who  refuse  a  cer- 
tain degree  of  conformity  to  their  teachings.  Thus  the 
church  membership  of  the  county  was  composed  almost  en- 
tirely of  those  who  voluntarily  came  into  the  church,  and 
who  lived  so  as  to  stay  in.  It  was  quite  the  thing  to  "  belong 
to  church."  In  fact,  one  who  had  passed  his  twenty-fifth 
year  and  was  still  outside  the  pale  of  the  church,  was  looked 

1  Cf.  supra,  pp.  27-33. 

2  There  were  no  church  statistics  published  for  1880,  the  year  with 
which  this  treatise  begins. 

3  Cf.  table  24,  p.  289.  *  Cf,  table  2Zy  p.  288. 

195]  19s 


X96  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [196 

upon  with  a  certain  degree  of  suspicion.  Church  member- 
ship was  a  recommendation  of  real  worth,  if  one  wanted 
to  secure  a  position  of  trust,  either  pubhc  or  private.  The 
few  who  had  made  no  profession  of  faith,  for  the  most 
part  believed  in  the  cardinal  principles  of  the  Christian  re- 
ligion and  had  little  or  no  criticism  to  make  of  the  ordinary- 
doctrines  of  Protestantism:  their  allegiance  was  withheld 
either  because  they  felt  that  many  of  the  church  members 
were  not  trying  to  live  up  to  their  profession,  or  else  be- 
cause they  themselves  wanted  to  enjoy  the  pleasures  of 
"  wild-oat-sowing  "  a  while  longer. 

POWER  AND  DEMANDS 

Although  the  majority  of  the  church  population  *  (in 
1890,  64.6  per  cent)  subscribed  to  the  faith  of  that  most 
democratic  of  religious  organizations,  the  Baptist,^  the 
church  as  an  institution,  nevertheless,  had  a  tremendous 
power.  To  be  sure,  it  made  few  demands  upon  its  adher- 
ents, but  those  it  did  make  were  generally  conceded  to  be 
just,  and  were  more  or  less  complied  with.  From  the  nega- 
tive side,  on  joining  the  church  one  was  supposed  to  quit 
dancing,  playing  cards,^  using  profanity,  and  getting  drunk. 

1  Cf.  table  23,  p.  288. 

2  In  the  Baptist  church  the  members  of  each  local  organization  arc 
dictated  to  by  no  one,  and  they  know  no  law  or  creed  except  that 
adopted  by  themselves,  and  for  which  they  claim  to  find  sanction  in  the 
New  Testament.  "  Baptist  church  polity  is  congregational  or  independ- 
ent. Each  church  is  sovereign  so  far  as  its  own  discipline  and  worship 
are  concerned."  Cf.  Special  Reports  of  the  Bureau  of  the  Census: 
Religious  Bodies,  1906,  part  ii,  pp.  46-7. 

5  This  was  true  of  all  the  various  denominations  having  a  following 
in  the  county,  except  the  Protestant  Episcopal  and  the  Catholic,  which, 
as  is  well  known,  object  to  neither  cards  nor  dancing.  These  two 
churches,  however,  claimed,  in  1890,  but  ^.z  per  cent  of  the  total  church 
communicants  of  the  county,  and  most  of  these  lived  in  or  near  Edenton, 
so  they  had  little  effect  upon  the  general  sentiment  in  the  rural  districts. 


197]  ^-^^  CHURCH  IN  THE  EIGHTIES  197 

A  member  might  be  called  to  account  for  being  drunk  and 
making  of  himself  a  public  nuisance,  but  never  would  he  be 
disciplined  for  merely  drinking.  Drinking  in  those  days 
was  a  mark  of  gentility.  One  drank  to  show  himself  a 
good  fellow,  whether  he  cared  for  drink  or  not.  ^'Ardent 
spirits  "  were  even  served  to  the  preachers.  In  fact,  to  have 
failed  to  set  out  a  generous  supply  of  good  liquors  when  the 
"  man  of  God  "  came  around  would  have  been  considered 
a  serious  breach  of  hospitality.  On  the  positive  side,  one 
was  expected  to  support  his  local  organization  both  by  his 
means  and  by  his  presence  at  its  meetings. 

MEETINGS 

Baptist. — The  Baptist  churches  (except  the  one  in  Eden- 
ton)  had  two  regular  meetings  each  calendar  month.  These 
were  held  on  a  definite  Sunday  (the  ist,  2d,  3d,  or  4th)  in 
each  month,  and  on  the  Saturday  preceding.  Regular 
church  services  on  Sunday  began  at  11  A.  M.  and  lasted 
from  an  hour  and  a  half  to  two  hours.  On  Saturday  there 
was  a  short  devotional  service  (beginning  at  the  same  time 
as  on  Sunday)  consisting  of  songs,  prayers,  and  a  sermon, 
followed  by  a  "  conference,"  or  business  session. 

While  women  are  generally  considered  more  religious 
than  men,  in  the  rural  sections  of  Chowan  the  men  of  the 
Baptist  faith  attended  nearly  twice  as  many  regular  ser- 
vices as  did  the  women.  Saturday  seems  to  have  been 
"  men's  day,"  and  only  a  few  women  were  ever  present.^ 
On  Quarterly  Meeting  Saturdays  (every  third  month)  a 
few  more  of  the  women  usually  came  out  than  on  the  other 
meeting  Saturdays.  This  was  the  time  when  the  "  roll-call 
of  the  sisters  "  was  supposed  to  take  place,  but,  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  it  was  usually  dispensed  with  by  unanimous  vote, 

1  It  was  a  common  thing  to  see  a  congregation  of  a  hundred  and  fifty 
having  not  more  than  four  or  five  of  its  members  women. 


igS  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [198 

since  by  the.  time  this  item  of  business  was  reached  every- 
body was  hungry  and  wanting  to  go  home.  On  Sundays 
the  women  came  out  in  full  force. 

Methodist. — The  individual  Methodist  congregations  had 
no  regular  week-day  meetings,  their  business  sessions  being 
held  at  irregular  intervals.  When  a  number  of  things  de- 
manding the  attention  of  a  local  body  accumulated,  there 
would  be  a  call-meeting  for  the  sole  purpose  of  considering 
them.  There  never  was  any  church  service  on  such  oc- 
casions. Aside  from  these  differences  their  meetings  were 
much  the  same  as  those  of  the  Baptists. 

Edenton  Congregations. — In  Edenton  the  three  principal 
denominations — Episcopal,  Methodist,  and  Baptist — usually 
held  two  services  each  Sunday,  morning  and  evening. 

Special. — Besides  the  regular  monthly  meetings,  there 
were  special  all-day  meetings,  with  free  dinner  on  the  ground 
for  the  general  public.  The  principal  ones  of  this  class  were 
the  "  Conferences  "  of  the  Methodists,  the  "  Unions  "  and 
"Associations  "  of  the  Baptists,  and  the  revivals  by  both 
the  Methodists  and  the  Baptists.  Probably  the  most  im- 
portant— most  important  because  the  most  frequent — of 
these,  were  the  revivals,^  locally  known  as  "  protracted 
meetings."  Most  congregations  had  one  every  year  or  two, 
lasting  for  about  a  week.  Usually  during  the  first  two  or 
three  days,  services  were  in  the  afternoons  only,  while  dur- 
ing the  rest  of  the  week  they  were  held  all  day. 

PLACES  OF  WORSHIP 

Grounds. — The  church  houses  were  nearly  always  built 
in  the  woods.  The  undergrowth  would  be  trimmed  out  for 
an  acre  or  two  around  the  house,  leaving  the  trees  for  shade 

^  Revivals  are  not  common  in  the  Episcopal  and  Catholic  organiza- 
tions, but  these  two  branches  of  the  church  had  but  a  small  following 
in  Chowan.    Cf.  table  23,  p.  288. 


199]  ^^^  CHURCH  IN  THE  EIGHTIES  199 

and  hitching  posts.  The  woods  beyond  the  grove  was  the 
only  toilet  for  either  men  or  women,  the  men  going  in  one 
direction  and  the  women  in  another. 

Buildings. — With  the  exception  of  two  brick  houses  in 
Edenton,  the  church  buildings  were  all  plain  wooden  struc- 
tures. Probably  three-fourths  of  those  for  white  people 
were  painted  and  plastered,  the  other  fourth  and  most  of 
those  for  the  colored  being  simply  unpainted  and  unplastered 
barn-like  hulls.  Several  of  the  white  churches  antedated 
the  Civil  War,  and  still  retained  the  galleries  formerly  used 
by  the  slaves.  Most  of  the  churches  had  two  front  doors 
(usually,  also,  one  or  two  in  the  back)  from  each  of  which 
led  an  aisle  to  the  rear,  where  was  located  the  pulpit.  There 
were  three  tiers  of  seats  down  the  main  body  of  the  house — 
a  tier  of  short  benches  on  each  side,  and  a  tier  of  long  ones 
in  the  center — and  one  tier  of  three  or  four  benches  on  each 
side  of  the  pulpit,  the  one  on  the  men's  side  of  the  house 
being  known  as  the  "  amen  corner." 

Seating  Arrangement. — The  women  sat  on  the  right  side 
(going  in)  and  the  men  on  the  left.  If  a  man  took  a  woman 
to  church  he  went  with  her  as  far  as  the  woman's  door,  where 
he  left  her  to  find  a  seat  as  best  she  could  (there  were  no 
ushers,  so  everybody  found  a  seat  for  himself),  and  then 
backed  off  and  went  in  at  the  men's  door.  In  a  general  way 
the  seating  was  as  follows :  The  deacons  and  older  men  oc- 
cupied the  "  amen  corner,"  the  corresponding  corner  being 
occupied  by  the  older  women.  On  the  side  tiers  were  the 
men  and  women  of  the  next  generation,  with  their  children. 
On  the  center  tier  were  benched  the  young  people  of  both 
sexes,  but,  as  a  rule,  not  interspersed.  In  fact,  many 
churches  had  a  railing  running  the  full  length  of  the  middle 
tier  of  seats  for  the  express  purpose  of  separating  the  sexes. 
If  a  youth  took  "  his  girl  "  to  church  he  could  sometimes 
muster  sufficient  courage  to  sit  with  her  on  this  middle  tier. 


200  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [200 

but  this  was  so  rare  that  it  was  much  noticed  whenever  it 
occurred.  During  the  special  all-day  meetings,  there  was 
some  mixing  up  of  the  sexes  in  the  seating,  but  even  then  it 
was  confined  largely  to  the  center  tier  and  to  the  near-grown 
and  recently-grown  of  the  unmarried,  it  being  most  un- 
common to  see  a  man  sitting  with  his  wife. 

Spitting. — This  segregation  of  the  sexes  was  a  very  real 
protection  to  the  women.  All  along  the  left-hand  tier  sat 
numerous  tobacco-chewers  who  experienced  no  qualms  at 
flooding  the  "  house  of  God  "  with  tobacco  spittle.  In  many 
churches  there  were  distributed  over  the  men's  side  of  the 
house  little  pine  boxes  (having  either  sand  or  sawdust  in 
them)  to  spit  in.  If  a  "  spit  box  "  happened  to  be  near,  the 
chewers  would  take  pot-shots  at  it;  but  if  none  was  there,  or 
they  failed  to  hit  the  receptacle,  it  was  all  the  same  to  them. 
Some  seemed  to  take  special  delight  in  seeing  how  big  a 
puddle  of  tobacco  spittle  they  could  make  on  the  church 
floor.  It  was  no  uncommon  thing  for  individual  men  dur- 
ing a  single  service,  to  squirt  tobacco  juice  over  a  space  a^ 
large  as  a  Merry  Widow  hat. 

BABIES 

The  whole  family,  babes  in  arms  as  well  as  grown-ups, 
went  to  church.  Some  few  babies  were  "  good  "  and  would 
sleep  through  most  of  the  service,  but  the  vast  majority 
were  not  of  this  order.  Some  crawled  around  on  the  pulpit 
under  the  preacher's  feet;  some  frolicked  up  and  down  the 
aisles  eating  cake,  biscuit,  and  candy ;  some  of  the  more  ill- 
disposed  bawled  most  of  the  time,  irritating  the  entire  con- 
gregation and  drowning  out  the  voice  of  the  preacher  for 
everyone,  except  those  very  near  him.  One  might  think* 
that  the  mothers  would  have  had  the  common  sense  and  the 
courtesy  to  remove  the  youngsters  when  they  persisted  in 
disturbing  the  whole  house,  but  most  of  them  did  not.     Nor 


2oi]  THE  CHURCH  IN  THE  EIGHTIES  201 

did  the  preacher  dare  seem  to  notice  these  manifold  dis- 
tractions to  both  himself  and  the  audience.  If  he  did,  forth- 
with both  men  and  women  were  up  in  arms  against  him,  and 
his  head  was  likely  to  get  the  axe  at  the  next  annual  election, 
if  in  a  Baptist  church  where  each  congregation  elects  its  own 
pastor,  and,  if  in  a  Methodist,  things  usually  became  so  un- 
pleasant for  him  that  he  would  utter  a  prayer  of  thanks  when 
transferred  to  another  field.  Many  preachers,  in  order  to 
especially  ingratitate  themselves  into  the  good  graces  of  the 
women,  frequently  would  say  something  to  this  effect: 
"  Mothers,  come  to  church  and  bring  your  babies.  They 
don't  bother  me." 

DOGS 

In  summer,  when  the  doors  were  open,  the  dogs  had  free 
range  of  the  house.  They  came  in  for  two  reasons — so- 
ciability and  something  to  eat.  It  was  their  custom  to  trail 
the  babies  all  about  the  house,  eating  that  which  they 
dropped,  or  threw  away,  and  not  infrequently  that  on 
which  they  were  still  gnawing.  Sometimes  two  or  three 
dogs  would  engage  in  a  pitched  battle  in  the  open  space  down 
in  front  of  the  pulpit.  When  such  encounters  took  place 
the  pious  deacons  would  lend  a  vigorous  hand,  or  rather 
foot,  thus  increasing  the  uproar  and  arousing  the  wrath  of 
those  whose  dogs  were  being  kicked  about.  At  some 
churches  there  were  worthy  brethren  who  were  self-ap- 
pointed dog-whippers,  and  who,  in  order  to  properly  perform 
this  service  of  their  Lord  and  Master,  were  accustomed  to 
carry  into  the  house  the  keenest  horsewhip  they  could  find 
on  the  church  grounds.  Apparently  nothing  did  their  right- 
eous souls  so  much  good  as  to  come  down  with  all  their  might 
upon  the  innocent-looking  hounds,  causing  the  poor  be- 
labored beasts  to  let  forth  yelps  that  could  be  heard  a  mile 
away. 


202  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [202 

MUSIC 

The  rural  churches  had  no  organs,  or  other  musical  in- 
struments, and  for  two  very  good  and  sufficient  reasons : 
first,,  many  church-goers  in  the  country  thought  instru- 
mental music  had  no  place  in  church,  some  even  going  so 
far  as  to  call  it  the  work  of  the  devil ;  second,  there  was  no 
one  to  play.  What  music  there  was,  was  singing  by  the 
congregation  of  the  old-time  slow,  simple  tunes.  Seldom 
was  the  range  more  than  an  octave,  or  the  notes  shorter 
than  an  eighth. 

DOCTRINES  AND  TEACHINGS 

Besides  the  distinctive  doctrines  of  its  different  branches, 
the  church  as  a  whole,  as  represented  in  Chowan,  taught  most 
of  the  principles  set  forth  in  the  "  Apostles'  Creed,"  a  burn- 
ing hell  ^  where  all  unbelievers  were  to  pass  their  future 
existence  in  unceasing  agony,  and  a  heaven  for  those  few  " 
who  hearkened  to  the  "  inner  voice."  The  salvation  taught 
was  the  "  salvation  by  faith  "  rather  than  "  by  works  " — 
salvation  by  self-denial  rather  than  by  generosity.  "Works" 
were  by  no  means  left  untouched  in  the  exhortations  of  the 
ministers,^  but  it  was  argued  that  "works"  followed  genuine 

1  Hell  was  declared  to  be  "  seventeen  times  hotter  than  a  brick-kiln /' 
— the  hottest  thing  known  in  the  rural  districts. 

'  One  favorite  quotation  of  the  ministers  was,  "  Straight  is  the  gate, 
and  narrow  is  the  way,  which  leadeth  unto  life,  and  few  there  be  that 
find  it."  (Matt,  vii :  14)  ;  another  which  enjoyed  much  popularity  was, 
"'  Many  are  called,  but  few  are  chosen."  (Matt,  xxii :  14.)  This  is  still 
the  teaching.  No  later  than  September  1914,  one  of  the  best-educate<i 
ministers  who  ever  visited  the  county  said  to  me  in  a  private  con- 
versation that  in  his  opinion  not  more  than  twenty  million  of  the  present 
sixteen  hundred  million  population  of  the  world  (The  World's  Almanac 
for  1915  states  the  population  of  the  world  for  1912  as  1,643,000,000) 
were  genuine  Christians,  and  that  only  the  Christians  would  be  saved. 

*  "  The  Lord  loveth  a  cheerful  giver,"  and  "  It  is  more  blessed  to  give 
than  to  receive,"  were  passages  often  quoted  by  the  spiritual  pilots 


203]  ^^^  CHURCH  IN  THE  EIGHTIES  203 

faith  as  "  the  night  the  day  " — that  works  were  the  natural 
fruit  of  faith — hence  it  was  faith  that  was  emphasized.  The 
Hfe  to  come  was  stressed  rather  than  the  Hfe  which  now  is. 
The  people  were  taught  to  endure  the  sufferings  of  this  Hfe 
for  the  sake  of  that  fuller  and  richer  life  into  which  the 
righteous  would  enter  when  their  earthly  existence  was  over. 
All  who  while  on  earth  failed  to  accept  the  New  Testament 
plan  of  salvation,  were  to  be  paid  in  full  at  the  final  great 
reckoning  when  the  "  just  Judge  "  would  mete  out  to  each 
of  this  class  his  dues  "  according  to  the  deeds  done  in  the 
body."  These  were  those  who  elected  to  remain  under  the 
law.  All  such,  if  they  failed  in  one  particular,  were  guilty 
of  the  whole,  and  since  no  one  was  supposed  to  be  able  to 
live  without  offending  in  some  point,  theirs  was  considered 
a  hopeless  case.  By  believing  in  Christ  one  escaped  justice 
and  obtained  mercy  instead. 

Heaven  was  a  sort  of  loafers'  paradise  * — a  place  where 
there  was  nothing  to  do  but  laze  around  "  in  shining  robes 
and  starry  crowns,"  admire  "  the  gates  of  pearl  and  the 
streets  of  gold,"  and,  with  the  angels,  sing  "  hallelujahs  to 
the  Lamb." 

PREACHERS 

The  preacher  most  in  favor  was  he  who  could  do  the  most 
fluent  and  loudest  talking,  relate  the  most  harrowing  death- 
bed occurrences,  paint  the  most  lurid  pictures  of  hell,  and 
do  the  most  scorching  of  poor  damned  sinners  in  the  short- 
est period  of  time.     It  was  "  preaching,"  not  the  exposition 

to  induce  the  close-fisted  to  part  with  their  cash,  as  they  were  starting 
the  stewards  and  deacons  out  after  the  "  silver  offering,"  which  usually, 
however,  turned  out  to  be  largely  a  "  nickel  and  copper  offering." 

1  This  notion  of  heaven  is  expressed  in  the  lines  of  many  of  the 
popular  hymns.  Some  of  them  are  as  follows :  "  There  is  rest,  sweet 
rest,  in  heaven."     "  Every  day  will  be  Sunday  by  and  by." 


204  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [204 

of  the  Bible,  that  the  people  wanted;  the  slow,  deliberate, 
scholarly,  discourse  upon  the  Scriptures,  appealing  to  the 
reason,  called  forth  little  enthusiasm.  The  minister  who 
could  appeal  most  strongly  to  the  feelings  and  stir  up  the 
most  excitement  w^as  considered  best.  This  type  of  min- 
ister was  especially  in  his  glory  at  "  protracted  meet- 
ings." Unless  one  could  picture  hair-raising,  tear-starting 
scenes  he  was  no  good  on  such  occasions.  The  successful 
revivalists  were  those  who  dealt  in  such  exhortations  as  the 
following : 

Young  man,  young  woman,  you  know  that  in  refusing  to 
hearken  to  the  Saviour's  voice  you  are  trampling  with  unhal- 
lowed feet  upon  the  fervent  prayers  of  that  dear  old  sainted 
mother  of  yours  who  loved  you  so  much  and  who  has  now 
gone  on  to  receive  her  reward.  Fathers,  mothers,  have  you 
forgotten  the  voices  of  the  little  ones  who  used  to  climb  upon 
your  knees  and  put  their  little  arms  about  your  neck?  These 
little  ones  now  await  you  in  glory.  Why  will  you  harden  your 
hearts?  This  was  God's  discipline  to  you.  Must  He  still 
further  wring  your  hearts  in  order  to  bring  you  to  accept  His 
terms?  Sinners,  this  may  be  your  last  chance.  God  says, 
"  My  spirit  shall  not  always  strive  with  man."  ^ 

SOCIAL  FEATURES 

Place  of  Communication. — The  church  served  not  only  the 
religious  side  of  the  natures  of  these  people,  but  also  the 
social  side ;  in  fact,  it  is  highly  probable  that  this  latter  was 
the  more  important  of  the  two.  The  paucity  of  artificial 
means  of  communication,  together  with  the  small  amount  of 
book-learning,  made  it  necessary  that  the  dissemination  of 
most  information  be  done  by  personal  intercourse.     The 

1  Cf.  Gen,  vi,  3.  They  did  not  balk  at  taking  any  phrase  out  of  its 
original  connection  and  making  whatever  application  of  it  that  happened 
to  suit  their  purpose. 


205]  1'tiE-  CHURCH  IN  THE  EIGHTIES  205 

church  was  one  of  the  chief,  if  not  the  chief,  centers  for  the 
interchange  of  ideas  and  general  gossip.  Many  people  ar- 
rived early,  and  not  a  few  stayed  out  under  the  trees  talking 
till  long  after  the  services  had  begun,  while  some  never  went 
in  at  all.  After  services  were  over,  almost  everybody  visited 
for  a  little  while.  The  all-day  meetings  with  dinner  on  the 
ground  were  especially  attractive,  because  of  both  the  elab- 
orate free  dinners  and  the  unsurpassed  social  opportuni- 
ties afforded  by  the  interval  between  the  forenoon  and  the 
afternoon  sessions.  Many  of  these  big  meetings,  the  re- 
vivals in  particular,  came  off  in  the  late  summer  and  early 
fall.  As  this  was  a  time  of  comparative  leisure  with  the 
farmers,  and  as  the  meetings  were  the  biggest  attractions 
going,  they  were  exceedingly  popular.  On  such  occasions 
as  these,  lovers  enjoyed  the  rare  good  fortune  of  sauntering 
around  together  and  privately  pouring  out  to  each  other  their 
fancied  feelings.  Under  these  circumstancs  it  is  not  sur- 
prising that  the  church-ground  was  the  place  where  many  a 
bargain  was  made  that  sealed  the  fate  of  two  lives  "  for 
better  or  for  worse.'* 

Place  of  Exhibition. — The  church  was  also  the  chief  place 
for  the  display  of  millinery,  the  flashing  of  jewelry,  and  the 
exhibition  of  numerous  lace-trimmed  white  petticoats.  At 
this  period,  instead  of  wearing  a  single  invisible  petticoat, 
or  none  at  all,  it  was  customary  for  the  women  when 
"  dressed  up  "  to  wear  as  many  petticoats  as  they  could 
well  move  around  in.  From  three  to  four  was  the  minimum 
worn  even  in  summertime,  and  from  that  on  up  to  eight  and 
ten  were  worn  on  special  occasions.  Young  girls  who 
were  planning  visits  out  of  the  neighborhood  frequently  bor- 
rowed the  best  petticoats  of  their  girl  friends  in  order  to 
make  a  big  display  in  this  class  of  lingerie.^ 

1  These  are  facts  given  to  me  by  women  who  were  then  leading 
social  lights.    They  are  also  attested  by  numerous  others. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

The  Church  in  191 5 

church  population 

The  church  population  of  the  county  in  1906  was  larger 
than  the  population  above  fifteen  years  old,  the  figures  being 
592  and  590,  respectively,  out  of  every  1000  of  the  entire 
population.  During  the  period  from  1890  to  1906  the  ratio 
of  the  church  population  to  the  total  population  increased 
8.6  per  cent.  In  other  words,  the  number  of  church  com- 
municants rose  from  506  out  of  every  1000  of  the  total  popu- 
lation in  1890  to  592  in  1906.^  This  percentage  increase  in 
church  membership  was  doubtless  due  not  to  any  marked  in- 
crease in  either  morals  or  religion,  but  rather  to  the  fact  that 
people  come  into  the  church  at  an  earlier  age  now  than  for- 
merly. Children — almost  babes  in  arms — ^are  now  not  only 
welcomed,  but  by  many  preachers  are  even  urged  to  become 
members  of  the  church.^  Thirty  years  ago  such  practice 
would  have  been  generally  disapproved.  Some  question  it 
now.  Once  in  the  church,  one  is  likely  to  stay.  Some  few 
voluntarily  drop  out  for  a  while,  and  from  a  few  others  the 
church  from  time  to  time  withdraws  fellowship  because  of 

1  Thus  far  the  U.  S.  Census  Bureau  has  collected  reliable  church 
statistics  at  only  two  dates — 1890  and  1906.    Cf.  table  24,  p.  289. 

2  In  September  1914,  I  heard  one  of  the  most  popular  ministers  that 
ever  preached  in  the  county  relate  in  a  revival  the  story  of  a  six-year- 
old  girl  who  came  into  the  church  under  his  ministry.  This  little  girl, 
so  he  stated,  was  one  of  the  best  church-workers  he  had  ever  known. 
He  gave  the  incident  to  influence  the  parents  against  objecting  to  their 
little  ones  joining  the  church. 

2g6  [206 


207]  THE  CHURCH  IN  1915  207 

their  refusal  either  to  be  disciphned  or  to  bear  some  of  the 
expenses  of  the  organization;  but  these  usually  come  back 
and  die  in  the  church,  if  they  live  much  past  middle  life. 
But  few  make  *'  profession  of  faith  "  after  reaching  their 
twenty-fifth  year,  and  so  the  shoving  back  of  the  age  limit 
not  only  gives  a  longer  period  in  which  to  bring  them  in,  but 
also  includes  a  more  impressionable  one. 

PLACES  OF  WORSHIP 

Grounds. — The  rural  churches  are  still  located  in  groves, 
but  with  the  increase  of  population  and  the  concomitant  in- 
crease of  clearings,  some  no  longer  are  immediately  sur- 
rounded by  dense  forests.  A  very  few  congregations  have 
therefore  thought  it  necessary  to  build  privies  on  the 
grounds,  but  for  women  only. 

Buildings. — Of  the  church  edifices  of  the  county,  only 
^\Q  ^  ( four  for  white  and  one  for  colored,  all  located  in 
Edenton)  are  brick,  the  others  being  of  wood.  But  the 
houses  of  worship  of  both  races  are  much  larger,  finer,  and 
more  comfortable  than  formerly.  Most  of  them  are  painted, 
plastered,  and  carpeted,  and  some  have  towers  and  stained- 
glass  windows.  The  improvement  in  the  seats  has  been 
especially  marked.  Where  formerly  they  were  excruciating, 
straight-back  benches  made  by  local  carpenters  who  paid  no 
attention  to  the  shape  of  the  body,  now  they  are  frequently 
factory-made,  and  if  locally  made,  some  regard  is  had  for  the 
comfort  of  those  who  are  to  use  them.  A  very  noticeable 
change  is  the  absence  of  the  spittoons,  and  the  presence  of 
more  inviting  floors  as  the  result  of  less  spitting.  This  is 
another  evidence  of  the  increase  of  decency,  and  of  a  grow- 
ing knowledge  of  the  principles  of  sanitation  and  hygiene. 
The  latter  also  is  further  evidenced  by  the  fact  that  many 

1  Another  is  now  (August  1916)  under  construction,  in  Edenton. 


2o8  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [208 

of  the  church  buildings  (for  colored  as  well  as  for  white) 
now  have  their  windows  fitted  with  weight  and  cord,  thus 
permitting  ventilation  from  the  top  as  well  as  from  the 
bottom.  It  should  be  added,  however,  that  this  convenience 
is  all  too  little  used.^ 

The  more  recently  built  places  of  worship  have  only  one 
front  door,  and  some  of  them  three  aisles  instead  of  two 
(one  center  and  two  wall),  and  two  tiers  of  seats  in  the 
main  body  of  the  building  instead  of  three.  In  the  rural 
districts  the  men  and  women,  for  the  most  part,  still  sit 
separately,  though  this  custom  is  not  so  strictly  adhered 
to  as  formerly. 

Music. — Instrumental  music  has  been  introduced.  Prac- 
tically all  of  the  white  churches  and  a  few  of  the  colored 
now  have  organs,  and  generally  there  is  some  one  on  hand 
who  can  get  some  sort  of  music  out  of  them.  On  the 
whole  the  music  is  faster  and  more  pretentious  than  in  the 
eighties.  Many  churches  now  try  to  have  some  semblance 
of  a  choir. 

Other  Items. — While  certain  conditions  have  changed  con- 
siderably, others  have  changed  hardly  at  all.  The  type  of 
minister  most  preferred  is  about  the  same  as  it  was  three 
and  a  half  decades  ago,  while  the  distraction  caused  him  and 
the  audience  by  fractious,  bawling  infants  has  abated  but 
little,  if  any.  The  youngsters  still  crawl  and  romp  over  the 
house  nibbling  biscuit  and  cookies,  and  are  still  trailed  by 
the  hungry-looking,  wistful-eyed  curs  of  the  neighborhood. 

TEACHINGS  AND  PRACTICES 

The  essential  principles  of  the  church  have  remained 
about  the  same.     Dancing  and  card  playing  ( except  in  Epis- 

*  So  far  as  I  have  observed,  it  is  used  even  less  in  the  white  churches 
than  in  the  colored.  Even  in  summer  it  is  common  to  see  white  churches 
with  modern  windows,  ventilated  only  from  the  bottom. 


209]  ^^-E  CHURCH  IN  1915  209 

copal  and  Catholic  bodies)  are  still  classed  with  swearing, 
drunkenness,  gambling,  and  whoring.  Goodness  is  not  en- 
joined from  principles  of  rightness  and  justice,  but  rather 
as  a  matter  of  policy — it  is  a  paying  proposition :  ''  believe 
and  be  baptized  and  thou  shalt  be  saved,"  ^  shout  the  preach- 
ers— saved  from  an  eternal  hell  to  an  eternal  heaven.  Justice 
for  the  righteous  is  not  the  thing  promised  or  desired,  but 
rather  mercy.  The  wicked — the  unbelievers  ^ — those  who 
want  some  evidence  of  the  truth  of  a  proposition  before  they 
are  willing  to  accept  it — these  constitute  the  major  portion  of 
those  destined  to  receive  justice.  For  the  others,  justice  is 
to  be  escaped  by  believing  the  chief  tenets  of  the  church 
and  supporting  it  and  its  undertakings  more  or  less  willingly. 
It  is  generally  less.  In  fact,  not  infrequently  is  the  support 
just  as  little  as  the  member  thinks  possible  to  give  and  still 
have  his  name  retained  on  the  books  of  the  church.  Living 
a  clean,  decent  life  and  practicing  all  the  virtues  said  to 
have  been  taught  by  the  Christ  both  by  word  and  deed,  avail- 
eth  nothing,  so  far  as  the  after  life  is  concerned,  unless  one 
believes  the  New  Testament  story  of  Christ,  the  story  of 
creation,  and  the  entire  host  of  other  Biblical  tales,  such  as 
the  accounts  of  the  exploits  of  Noah,  Moses,  Jonah,  Samp- 
son, and  Daniel — tales  which  tax  rather  heavily  the  credu- 
lity of  many.  Doubtless  there  are  some  who  are  positively 
unable  to  accept  the  whole  of  such  teachings,  but  if  so,  they, 
for  the  most  part,  have  the  wisdom  to  keep  quiet,  even 
though  they  stay  out  of  the  church. 

1  A  variation  of  Mark  xvi :  16,  "  He  that  believeth  and  is  baptized 
shall  be  saved." 

2  Unbelief  is  considered  the  most  dangerous  of  all  sins,  since  it  is 
thought  to  be  the  one  sin  which  if  persisted  in  by  a  person  will  even- 
tually drive  the  spirit  away  for  good  and  all,  leaving  such  person  in  an 
irredeemably  lost  condition. 


2IO  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [210 

SEEING  THINGS  IN  A  NEW  LIGHT 

Some  of  the  ablest  thinkers  and  warmest  friends  of  the 
church  have  begun  to  reaHze  that  such  conditions  as  those 
above  outlined  tend  to  foster  the  very  thing  they  would  most 
like  to  avoid — a  mercenary  church  membership,  consisting 
of  two  varieties :  the  hell-scared,  heaven-bought  variety,  and 
the  self-seeking,  policy-pursuing  variety.  Those  of  the  for- 
mer class  are  impelled  by  the  fear  of  hell  and  the  hope  of 
heaven.  Those  of  the  latter  class  lack  the  blind  faith  of  the 
former  and  in  their  lives  repudiate  the  doctrine  which  teaches 
one  to  endure  privation  here  for  the  right  of  hoping  to  en- 
joy plenty  hereafter.  In  other  words,  they  value  rather 
highly  present  earthly  goods  and  discount  very  heavily 
future  celestial  wares,  but  at  the  same  time  have  the  keen- 
ness to  recognize  in  church  membership  a  business  asset  of 
no  mean  value,  and  the  hypocrisy  to  exploit  this  asset  to  the 
limit  of  their  ability. 

The  true  friends  of  the  church — the  honest  supporters 
of  her  socializing  activities — are  beginning  to  wonder  if  it 
might  not  possibly  be  of  more  service  to  mankind  at  large 
if  all  self-styled  Christians  should  occupy  the  time  which 
they  dedicate  to  the  Lord,  in  trying  to  apply  to  their  present, 
everyday  living,  principles  said  to  have  been  enunciated  by 
the  One  they  claim  the  founder  of  their  religion,  instead  of 
frittering  it  away  in  discussing  wrongs  alleged  to  have  been 
committed  by  the  Jews  nearly  two  thousand  years  ago. 
In  a  word,  some  of  the  far-thinking  and  best  friends  of  the 
church  are  beginning  to  feel  that  the  people  in  general  would 
attain  a  much  higher  degree  of  soul  development  as  well  as 
of  civic  development,  if  the  leaders  stressed  living  rather 
than  believing  —  stressed  the  desirability  of  securing  eco- 
nomic, political,  and  social  justice  here,  rather  than  the  de- 
sirability of  securing  a  lazy,  indolent,  heavenly  existence 
hereafter. 


2 1 1  ]  THE  CHURCH  IN  1915  2 1 1 

The  conception  of  God  as  a  potentate  whose  sole  business 
throughout  eternity  will  be  to  sit  upon  a  great  white  throne 
and  listen  to  the  servile  flattery  and  cajolery  of  His  com- 
paratively small  number  of  subjects  saved  by  Him  from  a 
burning  hell ;  and  the  conception  of  heaven  as  a  place  where 
there  is  nothing  to  do  but  sing  the  praises  of  a  Saviour  and 
idle  one's  time  away  in  a  material  luxury  far  surpassing  any- 
thing ever  dreamed  of  by  mortals — these  conceptions  of  God 
and  heaven  are  still  the  ones  most  generally  current.  There 
are,  however,  a  few  who  have  begun  to  ask  themselves  the 
question,  "  How  could  the  citizens  of  any  true  republic  or 
democracy  ever  have  evolved  such  ideas  of  God  and 
heaven?"  Some  have  answered  this  by  saying  that  it  is 
impossible,  since  life  philosophies  arise  out  of  life  conditions, 
either  mediate  or  immediate;  and  that  such  notions  could 
have  been  conceived  and  brought  forth  only  by  a  people 
afflicted  with  poverty,  laziness,  oppression,  and  slavery. 
That  they  are  unsuited  to  the  people  and  conditions  of 
Chowan  county  today  is  becoming  the  conviction  of  an  in- 
creasing number. 

CHURCH  LOSING  IN  COMPARATIVE  SIGNIFICANCE 

Catises  Outside  the  Church. — The  meetings  of  religious 
bodies,  especially  in  the  rural  districts,  still  continue  to  be 
the  most  important  social  functions.  It  is  to  these  that  many 
go  to  see  the  latest  styles  and  to  display  their  own  most 
recent  wardrobe  acquisitions.  Such  affairs  as  Sunday- 
school  picnics,  Methodist  Conferences,  and  Baptist  Unions 
and  Associations  are  still  the  occasions  for  some  of  the  larg- 
est gatherings  that  occur.  For  some  years  past,  however, 
these  meetings  have  been  losing  in  relative  significance.  The 
closer  proximity  to  city  attractions  due  to  the  coming  of  the 
railroads,  the  big  railroad  excursions  to  certain  towns,  the 
increased  means  of  communication,  the  increased  percentage 


212  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [212 

of  the  population  able  to  utilize  these  means  of  communica- 
tion, and  the  big  public  picnics  by  some  of  the  fraternal 
orders — these  have  all  tended  to  lessen  the  social  import- 
ance of  religious  gatherings. 

Causes  Within  the  Church. — Two  moves  within  the 
church  itself  have  helped  along  the  tendency.  The  first  is 
the  recently  introduced  custom  of  not  serving  dinner  at  the 
big  revivals.  The  second  is  the  action  that  has  been  taken 
against  allowing  anything  to  be  sold  on  the  church-grounds. 
Along  in  the  eighties  and  nineties,  whenever  there  was  an 
all-day  meeting,  or  series  of  meetings,  numerous  stands  for 
the  selling  of  such  things  as  cold  drinks,  ice  cream,  confec- 
tionery, and  cigars,  would  be  erected  on  and  around  the 
church-grounds.  These  stands  added  greatly  to  the  so- 
ciableness  and  enjoyableness  of  such  occasions,  without,  ac- 
cording to  the  opinions  of  some  of  the  most  influential 
church  members,  detracting  anything  from  the  possible  good 
effect  of  these  occasions  upon  the  community.  Neverthe- 
less, this  institution  has  been  done  away  with  by  the  v/hites 
(some  of  the  colored  churches  still  retain  it)  "  in  the  name 
of  the  Lord  and  on  behalf  of  the  moral  and  spiritual  welfare 
of  the  general  public."  Some  of  the  church  members  claim 
that  this  was  done  by  the  preachers  because  they  thought  the 
stands  might  get  a  nickel  which  otherwise  would  have  found 
its  way  into  their  (the  preachers')  pockets.  It  was  probably, 
however,  a  concession  to  those  carping  critics  who  feign  a 
superior  devoutness  to  the  great  majority  of  people,  and 
who  affect  to  believe  that  anything  which  gives  real  pleasure, 
other  than  singing  sacred  songs,  praying  prayers,  and  preach- 
ing precepts,  is  fathered  by  a  certain  personage  known  to 
them  as  "  His  Satanic  Majesty,  the  Devil." 


CHAPTER  XIX 

Sanitation  and  Hygiene 

conditions  in  the  eighties 

Flies. — The  words  "  sanitation  "  and  "  hygiene  "  had  little 
meaning,  either  in  theory  or  in  practice,  to  the  people  of 
Chowan  in  the  eighties,  barring  a  very  few  exceptions. 
There  was  probably  not  a  person  in  the  county  who  made  any 
effort  whatever  to  screen  either  the  cook-room  or  dining- 
room  against  flies.  Some  had  progressed  sufficiently  to  con- 
sider flies  an  unnecessary  evil  that  would  have  to  be  toler- 
ated, but  many  thought  they  were  especially  ordained  by 
God  to  teach  patience  and  forbearance  to  His  erring  chil- 
dren, or  for  some  other  purpose  known  only  to  Himself 
and  which  His  creatures  had  no  business  to  trv^  to  pry  into. 
In  summer  the  food  was  cooked  amidst  a  swarm  of  flies. 
One  ate  comparatively  few  mouthfuls  during  the  hot  season 
that  had  not  previously  been  inspected  and  sampled  by  flies. 
After  the  food  was  once  on  the  table  a  few  families  of  the 
higher  economic  classes  had  some  one  to  stand  by  with  a 
bunch  of  peacock  feathers,  or  some  other  shooing  ap- 
paratus, and  keep  the  flies  away  while  people  ate.  In 
most  homes,  however,  one  had  to  dispute  possession  with 
these  death-laden  pests  as  long  as  there  was  a  morsel  to 
be  possessed. 

The  principal  screening  done  against  flies  was  that  done 

for  the  babies  against  yellow-  and  other  biting-flies.     As 

for  the  house  flies,  the  babies  shared  their  attention  with  the 

grown-ups.     Of  course,  when  screening  against  biting  flies, 

213]  213 


214  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [214 

house  flies  were  also  excluded,  but  the  former  bothered  only 
a  few  weeks  in  the  year,  while  the  latter  were  in  great  pro- 
fusion for  seven  or  eight  months  in  the  year.  In  fact,  the 
house  fly  was  much  like  the  poor — always  on  hand.  Many 
a  time  have  I  seen  infants  lying  sleeping  with  open  mouths, 
in  and  out  of  which  flies  were  swarming  like  bees  in  and 
out  of  a  hive. 

Mosquitoes. — As  for  mosquitoes,  at  certain  times  of  the 
year  they  made  life  miserable  at  night.  Some  few  tried  to 
protect  themselves  with  mosquito  netting,  but  this  never 
made  anything  but  a  very  poor  screen.  It  was  delicate  and 
easily  torn,  hence  usually  remained  intact  for  a  short  time 
only.  Another  objection  to  the  netting  was  that  it  seriously 
hindered  the  circulation  of  air.  The  usual  method  of  pro- 
tection for  the  vast  majority  of  people  was  to  close  all 
doors  and  windows  to  the  sleeping  apartments  just  before 
sunset — the  time  when  the  mosquitoes  began  to  put  in  their 
appearance.  After  supper  they  would  sit  outside  till  bed- 
time, fighting  the  pests  and  dreading  the  hours  between  then 
and  dawn.  When  they  w^ent  to  bed  they  had  the  choice  of 
raising  a  window  and  continuing  the  battle  till  they  grad- 
ually sunk  into  unconsciousness,  or  of  sweltering  in  a 
close,  stuffy  room  on  a  summer  night  in  a  southern  clime. 
Many  people  were  afraid  of  "  night  air,"  others  were  afraid 
of  imaginary  night  prowlers,  so  the  greater  number  chose 
the  latter  alternative — shut  up  everything. 

The  fact,  however,  that  the  vast  majority  of  the  dwellings 
were  not  tightly  built,  being  neither  ceiled,  papered,  nor 
plastered,  rendered  conditions,  as  regards  ventilation,  less 
bad  than  at  first  might  seem.  Is  it  any  wonder  that  a  people 
thus  environed  should  think  of  heaven  as  a  place  "  where  the 
wicked  cease  from  troubling  and  the  weary  are  at  rest  ?  "  ^ 

1  A  line  in  one  of  the  church  hymns. 


215]  SAN  IT  A  TION  AND  HYGIENE  2 1 5 

Unfenced  Dwellings.  —  Comparatively  few  houses,  pos- 
sibly one  per  cent,  were  paled  off  from  the  'Mot  "  (barn- 
yard) or  fields,  hence  the  poultry  littered  the  space  around 
the  dwellings,  and  not  infrequently  came  inside  to  pick  up 
the  crumbs,  and  to  share,  along  with  the  cats  and  dogs,  the 
between-meal  lunches  passed  out  to  the  children.  When  the 
hogs  were  turned  into  the  fields  in  the  fall  of  the  year,  often 
they,  too,  were  allowed  to  visit  around  the  house  and  even 
to  sleep  under  it.  It  hardly  needs  to  be  added  that  they 
rooted  the  yard  full  of  great  holes,  which,  after  a  rain,  be- 
came stagnant  pools. 

Wells. — ^The  well  was  simply  an  uncovered,  shallow  hole 
in  the  ground,  from  eight  to  fifteen  feet  deep.  The  curb, 
which  usually  extended  all  the  way  from  the  bottom  up,  was 
sometimes  made  by  nailing  boards  on  a  square  frame,  but 
the  more  durable  and  artistic  ones  were  those  made  from 
hollow  cypresses.  The  water  was  almost  invariably  lifted 
by  the  fork-sweep-handpole  method.  Vessels  used  as  buck- 
ets were  of  various  sorts,  such  as  coffee  pots  and  small  dinner 
pots  that  had  already  served  their  time  in  the  kitchen,  hollow 
cypress  knees,  square  boxes,  and  a  few  first-class  cypress  or 
juniper  buckets  made  in  bucket  shape. 

Hard  by  the  well  stood  the  watering  trough  which  was  a 
dug-out  log.  To  this  came  the  horses,  and  sometime  the 
cattle  and  hogs,  the  last  named  especially  during  the  late 
fall  and  early  winter  months  when  they  were  picking  the 
fields.  Another  accessory  was  a  bench.  Here  the  pickled 
herring  were  soaked  and  washed.  Here  also  the  clothing 
and  vegtables  frequently  were  washed  and  the  water  dumped. 
The  water  which  drained  off  from  the  trough,  fish  bucket, 
and  wash  tub  made  a  puddle  beside  the  well  much  to  the 
delight  of  the  ducks  and  geese  (also  of  the  hogs,  when  they 
were  in  the  field) .  The  general  aspect  and  odor  were,  to  put 
it  mildly,  far  from  inviting.  This  is  that  type  of  well  which 
has  been  immortalized  by  painters,  poets,  and  musicians. 


2i6  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [216 

Ash-heaps. — The  dish-water  and  other  sewage  from  the 
kitchen,  except  what  was  carried  to  the  hogs  or  dumped  at 
the  well,  was  deposited  at  the  back  door  of  the  kitchen.  A 
few  of  the  more  industrious  farmers  turned  this  into  an 
asset  by  hauling  a  heap  of  dirt  to  catch  the  sewage,  which 
in  turn  enriched  the  dirt,  making  several  loads  of  manure. 
This  was  known  as  the  "  ash-heap,"  taking  its  name  from 
the  fact  that  some  people  also  dumped  their  ashes  here. 
This  ash-heap  could  be  kept  comparatively  decent  by  putting 
on  a  load  or  two  of  dirt  every  few  days.  In  the  summer 
time,  however,  when  it  needed  attention  most,  everybody  was 
busy  with  his  crop,  hence  it  received  very  little.  And  so, 
whether  the  sewage  was  utilized  in  making  manure,  or  simply 
poured  out  on  the  ground  at  the  back  door  of  the  kitchen, 
there  was  usually  present  a  hideous  cesspool.  On  hot  sultry 
days  the  odor,  which  was  one  of  the  accompaniments  to 
meals,  was  something  terrific. 

Privies. — Privies,  like  many  other  conveniences  in  the 
rural  sections,  were  largely  conspicuous  by  their  absence. 
The  women  went  out  behind  either  the  hen-house  or  the 
smoke-house,  and  the  men  behind  either  the  barn  or  the 
stables,  while  the  small  children  not  infrequently  utilized  the 
chimney-lock.^  Outside  of  Edenton,  possibly  five  per  cent 
of  the  families  had  privies.  From  a  sanitary  standpoint, 
however,  conditions  were  not  infrequently  about  as  bad 
where  the  privies  were  as  where  they  were  not,  since  many 
never  disinfected  them  at  all.  Their  chief  advantage  was 
privacy.  These  conditions,  in  connection  with  the  fact  that 
most  children  went  barefooted  for  seven  or  eight  months 
in  the  year,  made  for  the  spreading  of  the  hook-worm  and 
various  other  diseases.^ 

^  Many  of  the  houses  had  their  chimneys  built  on  the  outside.  The 
angles  made  by  such  a  chimney  and  the  house  were  known  as  the 
chimney-locks. 

'  See  U.  S.  Farmers  Bulletin  No.  463. 


2iy]  S ANITA TION  AND  HYGIENE  2 1 7 

CONDITIONS  IN    I915 

Many  conditions,  in  the  case  of  most  people,  are  much 
the  same  now  as  they  were  three  and  a  half  decades  ago. 
It  will  suffice  in  this  section  to  note  the  direction  in  which 
the  changes  are  taking  place. 

Screening. — ^During  the  past  few  years,  thanks  largely 
to  some  Government  bulletins,  two  or  three  physicians,  and 
a  newspaper  or  two,  a  few  people  thruout  the  county  have 
begun  partially  to  realize  what  a  menace  to  health  are  flies 
and  mosquitoes.  Within  the  past  four  or  five  years  con- 
siderable screening  has  been  done,  and  at  present  possibly 
fifty  per  cent  of  the  families  have  made  some  attempt  to 
screen  against  mosquitoes  and  flies  in  their  living-apartments. 
Doubtless,  however,  their  action  has  been  prompted  largely 
by  the  desire  for  immediate  comfort  and  the  feeling  that 
screening  is  coming  to  be  "  the  thing,"  rather  than  by  any 
desire  to  preserve  and  improve  health. 

A  fair  beginning  also  has  been  made  in  screening  against 
flies  in  the  cooking  and  eating  apartments.  Probably 
twenty  per  cent  of  families  now  have  their  dining-rooms, 
and  ten  per  cent  their  kitchens,  screened.  This  leaves  the 
vast  majority,  however,  still  cooking  and  eating  amidst  the 
flies.  Even  those  who  attempt  to  screen  where  they  cook 
and  eat,  still  have  an  appreciable  quantity  of  these  disease- 
spreaders. 

Unenclosed  Dwellings. — There  are  still  only  a  compara- 
tively few  rural  dwellings,  possibly  two  or  three  per  cent, 
having  permanent  enclosures  shielding  them  from  the  visi- 
tation of  the  poultry  and  other  barnyard  inhabitants. 

Pumps.  —  For  drinking  purposes  the  driven  well  (or 
pump)  has  now  largely  taken  the  place  of  the  open  well 
described  on  page  215.  Probably  ninety-five  per  cent  of  the 
families  now  have  access  to  driven  wells.      A  prominent 


2i8  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [218 

physician  ^  said  to  me  in  the  summer  of  1914,  "Driven  wells 
have  done  more  to  improve  the  health  of  Chowan  county 
than  any  other  one  thing,  screening  not  excepted." 

Seufage  Disposal. — Possibly  five  per  cent  of  the  rural 
families  now  have  underground  drains  and  another  five  per 
cent  surface  drains,  which  take  the  sewage  off  into  the 
fields  seventy-five  or  a  hundred  yards  from  the  house.  The 
kitchen  back-yards  of  the  other  ninety  per  cent  have  been 
only  slightly,  if  at  all,  improved  from  what  they  were  in 
the  eighties. 

Privies. — Privies  have  rtow  become  the  rule,  being  on  the 
premises  of  probably  ninety  per  cent  of  the  families,  but 
they  are  about  as  little  sanitary  now  as  they  ever  were.  The 
dogs,  chicke!is,  and  flies  still  have  free  access  to  most  of 
them,  and  only  a  comparatively  few  people  spread  around 
them  any  sterilizing  or  germ-destroying  material. 

1  Dr.  'Richard  Dillard,  Edenton,  N.  C. 


CHAPTER  XX. 
Necessaries^  Comforts^  and  Luxuries  in  the  Eighties, 

PHYSICAL    comforts. 

If  it  were  possible  for  one  of  the  present  age,  knowing 
nothing  of  the  past,  to  draw  back  the  curtain  and  look 
upon  conditions  as  they  were  in  1880,  he  would  be  amazed 
tO'  see  people  with  sO'  few  of  the  material  things  of  the 
world  extracting  so  much  genuine  pleasure  out  of  life. 
Even  those  living  now  who  were  living  then,  are  puzzled 
over  the  matter  when  they  stop  to  think  about  it. 

Buildings. — Take  the  dwelHngs.  The  majority  of  the 
people  were  housed  in  small,  one-story  structures — mere 
sheds — of  from  one  to*  three  rooms.  Probably  the  most 
common  model  of  the  comparatively  good-livers  was  the 
large  one-room,  single-story  building,  shedded  on  both  sides. 
The  back  shed  had  two  small  rooms  with  an  open  hall- 
way between ;  the  front  shed  had  a  small  room  on  one  end, 
while  the  remaining  space  served  as  a  porch,  and  was 
known  as  the  "  piazza."  This  general  style  was  frequently 
varied  somewhat:  a  partition  might  run  across  the  big 
room ;  only  one  side  might  be  shedded ;  or  the  sheds  might 
not  be  built  when  the  big  room  was,  but  later  on  when  the 
owner  felt  able,  or  his  growing  family  reached  such  propor- 
tions as  to  demand  more  room.  Only  a  very  few  were  two- 
story,  but  many  of  them  had  stairways  leading  to  the  lofts, 
which  were  used  for  sleeping  rooms. 

Not  only  were  the  dwellings  not  tightly  put  together,  but 

not  more  than  four  per  cent  of  them  in  the  country,  nor 

twenty-five  per  cent  in  town  were  either  ceiled  or  plastered. 

So  scarce  were  painted  two-story  houses  in  the  rural  sec- 

219]  219 


220  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [220 

tions  that  they  served  as  prominent  landmarks.  Probably 
from  ninety-five  to  ninety-eight  per  cent  o-f  the  dwellings 
were  frame  structures,  and  the  others  log,  there  being  but 
two  brick  dwellings  in  the  county. 

Tho  only  a  small  per  cent  of  the  dwellings  were  of  logs 
in  1880,  and  few,  if  any,  were  erected  after  that  date,  in 
the  rural  districts  probably  sixty  per  cent  of  the  kitchens 
and  smoke-houses,  and  ninety  per  cent  of  the  barns  and 
stables  wtrc  made  of  logs.  Many  doors  were  hung  on 
wooden  hinges  and  secured  by  wooden  fastenings.  These 
latter  were  of  three  types — the  bar,  the  latch,  and  the  lock. 
An  inside  bar  could  be  used  on  all  doors  except  those 
thru  which  first  entry  and  final  exit  were  made.  The 
inside  latch  was  on  the  front  door  of  many  dwellings.  If 
it  was  desired  to  have  these  front  doors  so  that  none 
other  than  the  owner  could  enter  without  some  trouble, 
it  was  necessary  to  use  locks.  But  many  people  never 
cared  to  have  their  doors  locked  when  away,  and  so  fas- 
tened them  with  an  inside  latch.  This  latch  was  no  pro- 
tection whatever  against  thieves  when  the  owner  was  away 
(probably  few  locks  are),  since  it  was  operated  by  simply 
pulling  a  string  which  hung  in  plain  view  on  the  outside. 
It  was,  however,  a  certain  protection  to  one's  person,  for 
when  one  was  on  the  inside  he  could  draw  the  string  in 
after  him,  and  then  nO'  one  could  enter  without  forcing  the 
door.  But  there  was  little  fear  of  crime  against  either 
one's  person  or  property.  The  principal  reason  why 
most  people  closed  their  doors  was  to  keep  out  dogs, 
chickens,  mosquitoes,  cold,  and  "  night  air."  ^  For  such 
purposes  the  wooden  latch  was  of  just  as  much  value  as  the 
best  of  locks.     If  one  who  kept  only  a  latch  on  his  front 

1  Most  people  were  terribly  afraid  of  "  night  air  "  and  so  shut  their 
doors  to  keep  it  out,  just  as  if  one  could  breathe  any  sort  of  air  at 
night  except  "  night  air." 


22 1  ]        NECESSARIES,  COMFORTS,  AND  LUXURIES         22 1 

door  happened,  on  leaving  home,  to  meet  some  one  going 
to  visit  him,  and  he  was  not  able  to  turn  back,  he  would  say 
something  to  this  effect ;  "  I  can't  go  back  now,  but  you  go 
ahead.  You'll  find  the  latch-string  on  the  outside  o'  the 
door;  just  go  in  and  make  yourself  at  home  till  I  return." 
From  such  conditions  as  are  here  typified,  arose  that  ex- 
pression of  cordial  welcome,  "  For  you  the  latch-string 
always  hangs  on  the  outside."  Many  never  locked  their  ■ 
barns  or  smoke-houses,  but  some  did  (feed  and  provisions 
were  about  the  only  things  ever  stolen) ,  and  here  it  was  that 
the  wooden  lock  was  most  frequently  used.  It  is  more 
difficult  to  pick  than  is  the  ordinary  factory-made  tumbler 
lock. 

.  Nearly  all  dwellings,  including  the  log  cabins,  were  cov- 
ered with  good  hand-riven  and  hand-drawn  shingles,^  while 
the  outbuildings  (such  as  barns,  stables,  and  smoke-houses) 
were  covered  with  rough  boards,^  just  as  they  were  riven 
from  bolts  of  timber.  In  other  words,  the  boards  were 
never  drawn.  Many  dwellings  had  no  windows  other  than 
wooden  shutters,  which,  when  closed,  shut  out  all  the  light 
except  what  came  in  thru  the  cracks  (rather  numerous) 
and  open  doors. 

Household  Furnishings. — Few  floors  were  burdened 
with  those  unsanitary  contrivances  known  as  rugs  and  car- 
pets. The  neat  housewife,  after  scouring  the  floor  (some 
scoured  every  three  or  four  weeks,  or  oftener)  frequendy 

1  By  "  drawing  "  is  meant  the  shaving  down  smooth  with  a  drawing- 
knife.  Before  being  drawn,  a  riven  shingle  is  in  reahty  nothing  more 
than  a  short  board.  It  has  to  be  smoothed  and  tapered  with  the 
drawing-knife  to  become  a  shingle. 

2  A  "  board "  in  this  section  is  always  riven,  never  sawed.  Sawed 
boards  are  called  plank.  The  board  usually  is  about  one-half  inch  thick, 
from  four  to  eight  inches  wide,  and'  from  two  and  a  half  to  five  feet 
long.  The  length  and  width  depend  upon  the  ease  and  straightness  with 
which  a  tree  splits,  together  with  the  use  to  which  the  board  is  to  be  put. 


222  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [222 

Sprinkled  clean,  white  sand  over  it.  The  few  carpets  there 
were,  were  mostly  rag  carpets.  Garments  no  longer  fit  for 
service  in  their  original  capacity,  were  torn  into  strips  of 
from  one-half  to  an  inch  and  a  half  wide,  their  ends  tied 
together,  and  with  a  twisted  cotton  warp,  woven  into 
carpets. 

The  furnishings,  both  of  most  dwellings  and  kitchens, 
were  scant,  simple,  and  chiefly  home-made.  Modern  con- 
veniences had  only  begun  to  make  their  appearance  in  a 
few  homes.  Not  more  than  twenty-five  per  cent  of  the 
homes  had  any  sort  of  timepieces  in  them.  Thus  it  prob- 
ably came  about  that  all  the  houses  were  built  to  square  with 
the  points  of  the  compass,  rather  than  with  the  public  thoro- 
fares  past  them.  When  the  sun  shone  straight  in  the 
doorway  the  housekeeper  knew  it  was  time  to  "  blow  up  " 
the  hands  for  dinner.  When  there  was  no  sunshine,  dinner- 
time was  guessed  at.  Possibly  three  or  four  per  cent  of  the 
families  had  sewing  machines,  tho  the  great  mass  of  the 
people  still  did  their  sewing  by  hand;  and  it  must  be 
remembered  that  this  was  a  time  when  ninety-five  per  cent 
of  the  clothing  worn  was  made  up  in  the  home — not  bought 
ready-made  from  the  stores,  as  is  most  of  it  today. 

Cooking  and  Cooking  Utensils. — Possibly  ten  per  cent 
of  the  families  had  cook-stoves.  The  others  cooked  on 
open  fire-places.  The  principal  cooking  utensils,  even  of 
most  of  the  best  families,  were  a  pot,  a  creeper  ^  (a  spider) 
or  twO',  a  long-handle  frying-pan,  a  tea-kettle,  a  griddle, 
and  two  or  three  wornout  hoes.  Such  food  as  beans,  peas, 
greens  (in  fact  practically  all  vegetables  except  sweet  pota- 
toes) ,  hominy,  and  much  of  the  meat,  was  cooked  by  boiling 
in  the  pot.  Some  few  had  big  ovens  for  baking  sweet  po- 
tatoes, and  some  were  baked  in  creepers,  but  probably  the 

1  The  creeper  at  this  time  was  a  heavy  cast-iron  pan  some  three  or 
four  inches  deep,  covered  with  a  lid,  and  stood  on  three  legs  about 
three  inches  high.    The  handle  was  from  twelve  to  fifteen  inches  long. 


22^]       NECESSARIES,  COMFORTS,  AND  LUXURIES         223 

bigger  half  was  roasted  on  the  hearth  before  the  fire,  or 
when  the  fire  was  low,  in  the  hot  ashes.  The  old  hoes  were 
used  for  baking  corn-bread  on.  The  "  hoe-cake  " — a  pone 
of  corn-bread  baked  on  a  hoe  that  had  already  lived  out  its 
usefulness  as  a  farm  utensil — in  Chowan  had  not  yet  passed 
into  the  realms  of  fiction.  Many  met  it  face  tO'  face  three 
times  a  day.  Much  of  the  salt  fish  was  broiled  on  the  coals. 
As  all  cooks  know,  it  takes  quite  a  little  grease  to  fry  most 
fish.  With  the  majority  of  families,  grease  was  a  rather 
scarce  article,  and  so  some  method  of  cooking  fish  other  than 
frying  was  necessary.  In  broiling,  no  grease  at  all  is 
needed.^  Most  baking,  other  than  that  previously  men- 
tioned, was  done  in  the  creeper,  while  the  frying  was  done 
either  in  the  creeper  or  in  the  frying  pan.  To  bake  in  the 
creeper,  it  was  set  on  the  fire  and  coals  heaped  on  the  lid. 
It  was  in  this  receptacle  that  was  cooked  that  famous  dys- 
pepsia-producing Southern  dish  known  as  "  hot  biscuit." 
The  much-prized  apple  and  peach  "  jacks  "  (kinds  of  pies 
— the  New  England  ''turnovers")  were  cooked  either  in 
this  or  in  the  frying-pan. 

Food. — The  food  of  more  than  ninety  per  cent  of  the 
people  consisted  chiefly  of  corn-bread,  salt  herring,  sweet 
potatoes,  bacon,  and  yeopon  —  ranking  in  importance  in 
the  order  named. ^  In  the  summer  and  fall  some  vege- 
tables and  fruits  were  eaten,  but  many  had  very  little  of 
either,  since  they  put  forth  little  or  no  effort  towards  having 
a  garden  or  orchard.  The  art  and  custom  of  canning  fruit 
and  vegetables  had  not  yet  been  introduced  here,  and  the 
country  stores  handled  neither  canned  goods  nor  dried- 
fruits  ;  so  aside  from  the  dried-fruits  put  up  by  the  individ- 
ual housekeepers,  there  was  neither  vegetables  nor  fruits, 
except  in  season. 

1  Cf.  supra,  footnote,  p.  105.  2  Cf.  supra,  pp.  104,  105. 


224  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [224. 

There  was  very  little  fresh  meat  eaten,  except  around 
hog-kiliing  time,  and  on  special  occasions,  such  as  all-day 
religious  gatherings/  Now  and  then  during  the  late  sum- 
mer and  fall  someone  would  butcher  a  yearling,  or  a  mis- 
chievous cow,  and  peddle  out  the  beef  among  his  neighbors. 
But  even  when  such  an  opportunity  for  having  fresh  meat 
was  offered,  many  could  not  take  advantage  of  it  for  the 
simple  reason  that  they  had  not  the  wherewithal  to  purchase. 
While  most  families  raised  some  poultry,  the  major  portion 
of  this,  together  with  the  eggs,  was  either  sold  to  carters,  or 
toted  off  to  the  stores  and  there  bartered  for  such  articles 
as  snuff,  tobacco,  sugar,  coffee,  and  spool  thread.^  When 
there  was  special  company  present,  chickens  and  eggs  were 
frequently  served.  The  fact  that  most  delicacies  were  usu- 
ally reserved  for  use  when  company  was  on  hand,  was 
doubtless  the  chief  reason  why  children  were  so  delighted 
to  see  visitors  come.  During  the  commercial  fishing  season, 
those  near  the  beaches  could  have  fresh  fish  after  they  be- 
came cheap.  Everyone  had  a  few  messes'  of  fresh  fish 
when  the  supply  for  the  year  was  being  hauled  in.  There 
was  also  a  little  fishing  with  hook  and  line  and  small  gill  nets 
in  the  mill-ponds  and  streams  during  several  months  of  the 
year.  In  the  fall  and  winter  many  secured  a  little  fresh 
meat  by  hunting.  Hunting  and  fishing,  other  than  that 
described  in  chapter  vii,  however,  were  followed  more 
as  diversions  than  as  means  of  obtaining  a  livelihood. 

Sweetening  of  every  sort  was  scarce.  There  was  a 
little  molasses  made,  some  molasses  and  sugar  bought,  and 
now  and  then  there  was  a  person  who  kept  a  few  bees.^ 
Yeopon  tea,  the  principal  hot  drink  for  the  majority  of 
people,  was  usually  served  "  straight  "   (with  neither  milk 

1  At  these  special  meetings  every  one  who  brought  dinner  had  some 
sort  of  fresh  meat — either  chicken,  pork,  or  beef. 

2  Cf.  supra,  p.  78.  s  Cf.  table  9,  P-  272. 


225]       NECESSARIES,  COMFORTS,  AND  LUXURIES         225 

nor  sweetening).  Much  of  the  coffee,  also,  was  served 
without  "trimmings."  Comparatively  few  families  milked, 
and  as  there  were  no  dairy  products  brought  in,  except 
butter  and  cheese  into  Edenton,  and,  in  the  winter  months, 
a  small  amount  of  cheese  into  the  country,  the  consumption 
of  dairy  products  was  comparatively  light.  ^  So  few  chil- 
dren had  any  milk  to  drink  when  growing  up  that  probably 
more  than  half  of  the  people  lost  the  taste  for  it  and  refused 
it  even  when  it  was  to  be  had. 

Clothing. — Clothing  was  coarse,  ill-fitting,  and  not  even 
abundant.  Practically  all  of  it,  except  the  Sunday  suits  of 
a  few  men,  was  home-made,  and  much  of  it  was  still  home- 
spun and  home- woven.  There  was  many  a  man  in  1880 
who  had  never  owned  an  overcoat,  or  pair  of  gloves,  nor 
had  on  an  undershirt.  Overshoes  were  practically  un- 
known in  the  rural  districts.  Gloves  and  overcoats  for 
children,  especially  boys,  were  rare  exceptions.  Sometimes 
a  child  used  one  of  his  mother's  or  father's  old  coats  when 
the  weather  was  very  cold.  Most  children  went  barefooted 
all  the  time,  except  during  the  winter  months.  Each  child 
received,  as  a  rule,  only  one  pair  of  shoes  a  year,  said  shoes 
being  turned  over  to  him  along  in  the  latter  part  of  Novem- 
ber or  the  first  part  of  December.  It  was  a  common  sight 
to  see  children  stark  barefooted  running  around  the  prem- 
ises on  cold  frosty  mornings. 

When  a  woman  bought  a  piece  of  millinery  in  those  days 
she  did  not  turn  over  a  small  fortune  for  it,  nor  did  she 
discard  it  for  a  new  piece  on  the  next  change  of  the  moon. 
In  most  cases  it  was  worn  as  long  as  it  looked  fairly  decent 
— usually  for  two  or  three  years.  It  was  only  the  especially 
favored  few  who  could  boast  a  new  hat  each  year,  and  she 
who  could  do  so  each  season  was  indeed  a  rarity.  Not 
only  was  there  saved  much  hard-earned  cash,  as  compared 

1  Cf.  supra,  pp.  68-71. 


226  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [226 

to  now,  in  buying  millinery,  but  also  a  great  deal  of  time. 
Although  a  woman  had  a  new  bonnet  only  every  two  or 
three  years,  she  nevertheless  did  not  spend  several  days 
picking  it  out  and  trying  it  on.  The  fact  is,  the  bonnets  of 
a  great  many  of  the  women  were  selected  and  purchased  by 
the  men,^  or,  to  speak  more  accurately,  selected  by  the 
salesman  and  paid  for  by  the  men.  The  prospective  man- 
buyer  called  for  a  hat  of  either  the  latest,  or  of  some 
special  style,  and,  since  the  question  of  fit,  then  as  now, 
rarely  entered  into  the  selection  of  a  woman's  hat,  if  the 
price  could  be  agreed  upon,  the  clerk  wrapped  it  up,  ac- 
cepted the  price,  and  the  transaction  was  consummated. 
What  an  enormous  amount  of  time  would  be  saved  for 
both  buyers  and  sellers  to-day  if  such  a  plan  were  still  in 
vogue ! 

THE  FINE  ARTS 

Music. — ^Turning  from  the  physical  necessities  of  shelter, 
food,  and  clothing,  to  the  things  of  a  more  aesthetic  nature, 
we  find  the  fine  arts — music  and  painting — but  meagerly 
represented.  In  the  category  of  musical  instruments,  few 
people  had  anything  more  pretentions  than  an  accordion, 
and  these  were  found  in  not  more  than  one  home  in  thirty. 
Probably  there  were  twelve  or  fifteen  fiddles  (an  average 
of  one  to  every  hundred  homes)  scattered  thruout  the 
county.  The  principal  instrumental  music  was  that  made 
by  an  ordinary  ten  to  twenty-five  cent  "  harp  "  (mouth- 
organ).  As  for  a  parlor  organ  or  piano,  while  there  were 
few  homes  with  them,  hundreds  of  people  had  never  heard 
either,  and  scores  of  grown  folks  did  not  even  know  what 
they  looked  like. 

Many  in  the  upper  end  of  the  county  well  remember  the 

1  Rural  milliners  had  not  yet  made  their  debut,  and  comparatively 
few  women  went  to  town,  except  those  near-by,  hence  it  came  about 
that  many  of  their  hats  were  bought  by  men.    Cf.  supra,  p.  137. 


227]        NECESSARIES,  COMFORTS,  AND  LUXURIES         227 

iirst  time  they  ever  heard  an  organ.  The  occasion  was  a 
big  Sunday-school  picnic,  about  the  middle  eighties.  A 
kind-hearted  old  gentleman  who  had  recently  bought  axi 
organ  for  his  daughter  allowed  it  to  be  carted  to  church. 
His  daughter,  who  was  probably  the  only  one  in  the  audi- 
ence of  four  or  five  hundred  people  who  could  perform  on 
it,  did  the  playing.  It  was  a  great  time.  The  only  fault 
that  most  of  the  audience  found  with  the  music  was  that 
the  organ  played  scarcely  any,  except  when  the  congregation 
was  singing.  Now  and  then  one  caught  strains  of  it  above 
the  voices  of  the  singers  and  fancied  what  it  might  be  if 
only  the  singers  would  hush  and  allow  the  organ  to  be  heard 
unaccompanied. 

Pictures. — Few  walls  were  adorned  with  pictures.  Prob- 
ably ninety  per  cent  of  the  homes  in  the  rural  districts  and 
seventy-five  per  cent  of  those  in  town  had  no  pictures  in 
them  whatsoever,  other  than  a  few  small  tintypes  of  some 
of  their  relatives  and  friends.  There  were  no  advertising 
posters,  or  calendars,  and  even  few  medical  almanacs.^ 
Occasionally  one  might  see  in  a  home  a  few  cheap  litho- 
graphs of  such  inspiring  (  ?)  scenes  as  "  The  Separation  of 
the  Sheep  from  Goats  at  the  Last  Judgment,*'  and  "  The 
Agony  of  Poor  Damned  Souls  in  Hell."  Probably  not 
over  five  per  cent  of  the  homes  had  any  sort  of  framed  pic- 
tures in  them.  The  lack  of  pictures,  however,  was  not 
because  there  was  no  appreciation  of  the  beautiful.  Many 
children  saved  every  piece  of  paper  with  a  bit  of  coloring  on 

1  In  the  summer  of  1914,  I  heard  a  mother  talking  to  her  thirty-six- 
year-old  son  in  regard  to  the  day  of  his  birth.  She  was  telling  him 
that  by  certain  calculations,  and  by  comparison  with  certain  established 
dates,  she  had  discovered  that  the  date  which  had  always  been  given  as 
his  birth  was  a  day  earlier  than  his  actual  birth.  When  asked  for  an 
explanation  of  this  discrepancy,  her  reply  was,  "  Son,  when  you  came 
along  we  had  neither  clock  nor  almanac,  and  didn't  have  until  after 
you  were  a  great  big  boy."  This  was  in  a  family  of  the  better  economic 
and  social  class. 


228  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [228 

it  that  fell  into  their  hands.  Much  of  their  time  in  school 
was  spent  swapping  "  thumb-papers."  ^  Those  with  pic- 
tures on  them  were  highly  prized.  Probably  nothing 
pleased  most  children  more  than  the  gift  of  a  picture  thumb- 
paper.  The  little  blue  and  red  bits  of  cardboard  with  Scrip- 
ture texts  on  them,  received  at  Sunday-school,  were  treasured 
not  so  much  for  the  text  as  for  the  coloring.  The  grown 
people  displayed  the  same  keen  delight  in  color  and  pictures 
as  did  the  children.  Anything  of  this  nature  that  chanced 
their  way  they  preserved,  and  sometimes  pasted  upon  the 
walls  of  their  homes. 

TRAVEL 

Travel  of  more  than  a  few  miles  from  one's  residence  was 
very  light.  Of  the  women,  ninety  per  cent  had  not  been 
over  thirty  miles  from  home  more  than  once  or  twice 
during  their  entire  lives,  and  many  had  lived  and  died  with- 
out ever  being  ten  miles  from  the  place  of  their  birth.  Prob- 
ably seventy-five  per  cent  of  the  men  went  to  Norfolk 
(sixty  miles  distant  from  the  upper  end  of  the  county)  at 
least  once  or  twice  during  their  earthly  careers,  but  this  was 
as  far  as  ninety-five  per  cent  of  them  ever  strayed.  The 
majority  of  people  had  little  business  away  from  home; 
their  social  visits  were  largely  confined  to  the  people  in  their 
immediate  neighborhood,  and  they  had  not  yet  acquired 
the  habit  of  traveling  for  the  mere  sake  of  being  on  the 
move.  Besides  these  things,  the  means  of  long-distance 
traveling  were  both  meager  and  expensive,  and  most  people 
were  not  able  to  afford  such  luxuries,  even  if  they  had 
cared  for  them. 

1  A  "  thumb-paper  "  was  a  piece  of  cardboard,  either  plain  or  with  a 
picture  on  it.  Besides  being  attractive,  if  it  was  either  colored  or  had  on 
it  a  picture,  it  also  served  as  a  book-mark  and  as  a  protection  to  the 
book.  Unless  the  child  had  something  upon  which  to  rest  his  thumb 
while  going  over  his  lessons,  he  frequently  actually  wore  out  the  spot  on 
the  page  where  the  thumb  rested — a  rather  sad  commentary  on  his  rate 
of  progress. 


:  CHAPTER  XXI 

Necessaries,  Comforts,  and  Luxuries  in  191 5 
physical  comforts 

Many  things  that  in  1880  were  reckoned  as  comforts  and 
luxuries,  are  to-day  looked  upon  as  necessaries.  In  other 
words,  the  standards  of  material  welfare  in  the  county  have 
been  considerably  raised  during  the  past  three  and  a  half 
decades,  and  this  has  been  confined  to  no  race  or  class. 
There  has  been  a  general  moving  up  along  practically  the 
entire  line,  altho  there  has  been,  as  one  would  expect,  some 
shifting  of  places. 

Buildings. — The  bams  of  not  a  few  people  to-day  would 
make  fully  as  comfortable  living  quarters  as  did  their  dwel- 
lings thirty-five  years  ago.  Log  dwellings  have  disap- 
peared. So  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  ascertain,  not  a 
single  log  structure  in  the  county  is  now  occupied  as  a 
dwelling.  Very  few  even  (probably  not  over  five  per  cent) 
of  the  log  kitchens  and  log  smoke-houses  remain,  and  not 
over  ten  or  twelve  per  cent  of  the  log  barns  and  stables.  Of 
the  white  home  owners,  fifty  per  cent  of  those  in  the  rural 
districts  and  ninety  per  cent  of  those  in  Edenton  have  their 
dwellings  painted,  and  either  ceiled  or  plastered.  Of  the 
colored  home  owners,  the  percentage  is  about  five  and  forty 
per  cent  for  the  county  and  town,  respectively. 

The  two-story  dwelling  is  now  all  the  fashion  in  the  rural 
sections.  Almost  without  exception,  every  one  in  the  rural 
districts  who  has  put  up  a  dwelling  of  more  than  two  rooms 
within  the  past  ten  years,  has  built  it  two  stories.  There 
seems  to  be  a  general  feeling  that  a  two-story  house  gives  a 
certain  amount  of  prestige  that  is  not  conferred  by  a  one- 
229]  229 


230  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [230 

story  house,  even  tho  both  cost  the  same.  Another  move- 
ment of  late  years  is  to  have  the  dwelHng  and  kitchen  con- 
nected with  each  other,  either  by  joining  together,  or  with 
a  porch  between;  formerly  the  more  usual  custom  was  to 
have  the  kitchen  set  off  a  few  paces  from  the  dwelling: 

Not  only  has  a  great  improvement  taken  place  in  dwell- 
ings, but  the  same  is  true  of  the  outbuildings,  as  above  in- 
timated. As  many  as  thirty  or  forty  per. cent  of  the  farm- 
owners  now  have  fairly  decent. barns  and  shelters.  Thirty- 
five  years  ago  it  would  not  have  run  over  eight  or  ten  per 
cent.  As  many  farmers  now  have  painted  barns  as  in  1880 
had  painted  dwellings. 

Comparatively  few  wooden  hinges  now  remain,  and  most 
home-made  fastenings,  especially  for  dwellings,  have  been 
supplanted  by  the  factory-made  article.  Most  barns  and 
kitchens  are  now  fitted  with  locks,  tho  many  of  them  are 
seldom  used. 

Household  and  Kitchen  Furniture. — Household  and  kit- 
chen furniture  has  increased  in  variety,  quantity,  and  ele- 
gance, tho  in  many  cases  where  the  factory  product  has  been 
substituted  for  the  home-made,  elegance  has  been  purchased 
at  the  price  of  durability.  Probably  ninety  per  cent  of  home 
owners  and  fifty  per  cent  of  all  other  families  now  have 
sewing  machines;  for  cook-stoves,  the  percentage  is  about 
ninety-eight  and  seventy-five,  respectively.  As  for  time- 
pieces and  lamps,  they  are  in  practically  every  home. 

Food. — In  the  matter  of  food  there  has  also  been  con- 
siderable advancement.  The  variety  has  been  increased, 
and  such  things  as  coffee,  sugar,  and  flour,  which  were  the 
luxuries  of  the  comparatively  few  well-to-do  families,  are 
now  consumed  by  all,  and  by  many,  about  as  freely  as  de- 
sired. The  introduction  of  home-canning  makes  it  possible 
for  all  farmers  to  have  their  own  fruit  and  vegetables  the 
year  round,  but  the  possibility  is  all  too  little  appreciated. 


231]       NECESSARIES,  COMFORTS,  AND  LUXURIES         23 1 

Less  than  five  per  cent  of  the  families  can  any  vegetables 
other  than  tomatoes;  and  while,  perhaps,  eighty  per  cent 
of  the  white  families  and  fifteen  per  cent  of  the  colored 
can  some  fruit  each  year,  probably  less  than  ten  per  cent 
of  the  families  can  as  much  as  ten  gallons  of  fruit  an- 
nually. A  majority  of  the  white  families  and  a  few  of  the 
colored  put  up  a  gallon  or  two  of  preserves  each  year. 
These,  as  well  as  the  canned  fruit,  rarely  ever  see  the  light 
except  on  Sundays  or  when  company  is  around.  Preserves 
seem  to  be  considered  a  greater  delicacy  than  plain  fruit. 
In  fact,  they  are  frequently  served  during  the  height  of  the 
fruit  season  by  those  who  have  an  abundance  of  fruit,  in 
preference  to  the  fresh  fruit.  Comparatively  little  fruit 
is  eaten,  except  in  fruit  season,  and  then  between  meals  just 
as  it  is  gathered.  Raw  fruit  is  almost  never  seen  on  the 
table,  and  the  little  cooked  fruit  served,  is  mostly  in  the 
shape  of  pies  or  preserves,  especially  in  the  rural  districts. 
The  wholesome,  easily  prepared,  stewed  fruit  or  fruit 
sauce,  is  very  rarely  served.  For  weeks  at  a  time  many 
people  never  taste  fruit  of  any  sort. 

The  present  small  consumption  of  cooked  fruit  is  due 
probably  to  habits  formed  in  less  prosperous  times,  rather 
than  to  any  dislike  of  fruit.  Unsweetened  cooked  fruit  is 
not  relished  by  many,  and  so  in  earlier  days  when  sweeten- 
ing, especially  sugar,  was  expensive  and  the  purchasing 
power  of  most  people  small,  it  was  quite  natural  that  little 
fruit  should  be  cooked ;  and  the  habit  of  regarding  sugar  as 
a  luxury  became  so  fixed  that  now,  under  vastly  changed 
conditions  where  sugar  is  one  of  our  cheapest  energy-pro- 
ducing foods,  the  idea  that  sugar  is  an  expensive  delicacy 
still  prevails  even  in  many  of  the  better-class  homes. 

Vegetables,  like  fruit,  are  used  but  comparatively  little  by 
the  rural  population,  except  in  season,  and  then  by  many 
only  sparingly.     Many  people  make  little  or  no  pretense 


232  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [^27,2 

whatever  of  having  any  garden,  and  the  gardens  of  a 
majority  are  comparatively  inferior.  For  weeks  at  a  time 
during  the  season  in  which  vegetables  may  be  grown,  many 
a  so-called  farmer  gathers  absolutely  nothing  in  the  way  of 
garden  stuff.  As  above  noted,  hardly  any  vegetables  are 
canned,  and,  excepting  sweet  potatoes,  almost  none  stored; 
the  farmer  hates  to  buy  from  the  stores  anything  that  he 
himself  produces;  hence  it  comes  about  that  vegetables  out 
of  season  are  especially  rare  in  the  rural  districts.  There 
is  still  very  little  milk  and  butter  produced  ^  or  consumed. 
For  months  at  a  time  sixty  per  cent  of  the  people  never 
taste  butter,  and  most  of  the  poultry  and  eggs  are  sold.  By 
March  the  sweet  potatoes  (except  those  for  planting)  of  a 
great  many  families  have  been  either  eaten  or  sold,  or  else 
have  rotted,  and  so,  for  many  of  the  people  much  of  the 
time,  the  principal  diet  is  cheap  flour,  made  into  poorly 
cooked  biscuits,  corn-bread,  salt  pork  or  bacon,  and  herring. 

AESTHETICS 

Dress. — When  it  comes  to  dress,  the  transformation  that 
has  taken  place  here  within  the  last  three  and  a  half  dec- 
ades is  probably  greater  than  that  in  any  other  phase  of  the 
economic  or  social  life.  Even  the  day-laborer  now  dis- 
ports himself  in  tailored-to-measure  garments  of  the  latest 
cut  and  pattern.  When  buying  wearing  apparel  now,  the 
questions  of  fit  and  fashion  are  ones  uppermost  in  the  per- 
son's mind,  those  of  comfort  and  warmth  coming  in  only 
as  secondary  considerations.  Silk  hosiery,  fancy  lingerie, 
and  the  latest  Paris  creations  in  frocks  and  millinery  may 
now  be  seen  at  any  public  gathering,  even  in  the  rural  dis- 
tricts. The  vast  majority  of  both  white  and  colored,  dress 
well. 

Music. — One  who  presumes  to  sing  something  other  than 

1  Cf.  table  9,  p.  272. 


233]        NECESSARIES,  COMFORTS,  AND  LUXURIES         233 

a  "  sacred  song  "  is  no  longer,  by  reason  of  the  fact,  con- 
sidered hellward  bound.  Instrumental  music  is  coming  to 
be  fairly  common,  and  not  infrequently  fairly  good.  Most 
of  those  desiring  piano  lessons  can  have  them  at  from 
twenty-five  to  forty  cents  apiece.^  Of  the  home  owners 
with  daughters  from  ten  to  twenty  years  old,  probably  fifty 
per  cent  of  the  white  and  twenty  per  cent  of  the  colored 
have  either  a  parlor  organ  or  a  piano.  There  are  also  many 
other  families  that  have  one  or  both  of  these  instruments. 

Pictures. — Pictures  are  still  few.  In  less  than  ten  per 
cent  of  the  rural  homes  will  there  be  found  anything  more 
pretentious  than  advertising  picture-calendars  and  enlarged 
tintypes  and  photographs  of  relatives.  These  latter  are 
probably  in  seventy  per  cent  of  the  homes  of  whites  and 
forty  per  cent  of  those  of  colored,  in  both  town  and  country. 
They  are  cheap,  blown-crayon  reproductions  put  in  by  trav- 
eling picture  agents  who  succeed  largely  by  working  on  the 
feelings  of  the  women.  For  the  most  part,  they  are  woe- 
fully poor — the  very  antithesis  of  anything  aesthetic  or 
artistic.  However,  they  probably  serve  one  useful  end — 
by  constantly  reminding  one  of  from  what  hard-looking 
ancestors  he  sprang,  they  may  tend  to  mitigate  that  affection 
commonly  known  as  the  "swell-head."  In  Edenton,  twenty 
per  cent  of  the  families  may  have  pictures,  other  than  the 
above-mentioned  enlarged  portraits,  which  they  think  enough 
of  to  frame.  The  probable  reason  for  such  a  slight  mani- 
festation in  this  direction  of  the  love  of  art  is  that  pictures, 
have  not  become  the  fashion.  It  is  another  case  of  habits 
having  been  formed  under  different  conditions  and  not  being 
altered  when  the  conditions  changed.  As  is  well-known, 
pretty  fair  reproductions  of  the  works  of  many  of  the  best 

1  These  are  usually  given  by  the  public-school  teachers  who  happen 
to  know  a  little  music.  This  is  in  no  way,  however,  connected  with 
the  public-school  work. 


234  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [234 

artists  can  be  purchased  for  a  few  cents  each,  and  there 
are  scarcely  any  people  who  could  not  have  some  of  these 
neatly  framed  in  their  homes,  if  they  were  really  anxious 
for  them. 

Other  Expressions  of  the  Artistic  Sense. — The  hanging  of 
pictures  on  the  walls  of  one's  home,  however,  happens  to  be 
only  one  of  the  many  ways  in  which  one  may  display  his 
aesthetic  tastes.  With  the  coming  of  better  times  to  nearly 
every  one  in  Chowan,  the  artistic  instinct  has  been  expressed 
in  various  ways.  Attention  has  already  been  called  to  the 
remarkable  improvement  in  dress,  dwellings,  school  houses, 
church  buildings,  and  the  furnishings  of  homes.  The  prem- 
ises now  are  better  kept  and  meals  more  appetizingly  served 
than  formerly;  and  fine-looking  horses  and  rigs  are  vastly 
more  abundant,  to  say  nothing  of  the  numerous  automobiles. 
It  may  not  always  be  possible  to  distinguish  the  love  of 
mere  display,  the  desire  to  outdo  one's  neighbors,  and  the 
tendency  to  imitate,  from  the  true  love  of  art ;  but  the  same 
is  the  case  everywhere  else,  and  so  if  the  marks  of  an  aes- 
thetic nature  are  present,  who  would  presume  to  say  that 
they  are  due  to  other  than  aesthetic  sentiments? 

TRAVEL 

With  the  coming  of  the  railroads  and  of  better  economic 
conditons,  travel  has  both  greatly  increased  and  become  far 
more  general.  While,  in  1880,  comparatively  few  women 
and  children  under  eighteen  had  ever  visited  Norfolk 
(the  nearest  seaport  and  trade  center),  probably  a  majority 
of  the  adults  now  fifty  have  at  some  time  or  other  made  the 
trip  and  gotten  a  glimpse  of  the  outside  world.  Many  of 
those  who  grew  up  under  the  old  conditions,  however,  have 
never  undertaken  the  journey,  and  for  eighty-five  per  cent 
or  more  of  the  people  Norfolk  still  stands  as  the  farthest 
limit  of  their  wanderings  from  home.  Some  few  have 
traveled  rather  widely. 


PART  IV 
CONCLUSIONS 


CHAPTER  XXII 

Progressive  and  Retrogressive  Factors  Affecting  the 
Economic  and  Social  Development 

It  is  the  purpose  of  this  chapter  to  point  out  some  of  the 
most  influential  forces,  both  physical  and  psychological, 
which  at  various  times  have  played  upon  the  people  of  the 
county.  It  may  be  well,  however,  first  to  review  the  situ- 
ation briefly. 

situation  reviewed 

The  Eighties. — Domiciled  upon  a  territory  with  a  soil 
most  of  which  was  easily  drained  and  easily  cultivated,  and 
much  of  which  was  of  high  natural  fertility,  with  a  climate 
having  an  abundance  of  both  rainfall  and  sunshine  fairly 
well  distributed  thruout  the  year,  and  lacking  the  extremes 
of  both  heat  and  cold  yet  at  the  same  time  possessing  ample 
variety  for  the  highest  mental  and  physical  stimulation — 
domiciled  amid  these  favorable  surroundings  was  a  group 
of  people  (for  the  most  part  native-born  of  native  stock 
that  came  originally  from  either  Africa  or  the  British  Isles) 
many  of  whom  in  the  last  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury were  living,  in  numerous  respects,  in  a  manner  very 
similar  to  that  in  which  their  forbears  had  lived  two  cen- 
turies before.  There  was  comparatively  little  division  of 
labor  and  the  majority  of  the  white  families  were  to  a  re- 
markable degree  individually  self-sufficient.  To  the  great 
mass  of  the  people  luxuries  were  almost  unknown,  com- 
forts were  few,  and  many  lacked  even  the  bare  physical 
necessities — lacked  the  necessary  food  and  clothing  to  per- 
form the  amount  of  common  labor  which  they  were  poten- 
tially capable  of.    Excepting  a  very  small  per  cent,  they  had 


238  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [238 

little  knowledge  of,  or  communication  with,  the  outside 
world.  A  large  percentage  of  the  whites — ^to  say  nothing 
of  the  blacks,  the  vast  majority  of  whom  could  neither  read 
nor  write — were  illiterate,  and  judging  from  the  small 
amount  of  money  spent  on  education  and  the  small  school- 
attendance,  it  would  seem  that  the  majority  were  satisfied  to 
have  their  children  grow  up  knowing  just  as  little  as  they 
themselves  knew. 

Nineteen  Hundred  and  Fifteen. — The  picture  we  get  a 
third  of  a  century  later  is  quite  different.  It  is  probable 
that  greater  economic  development  was  experienced  during 
this  short  period  of  three  and  a  half  decades  than  in  the 
previous  two  centuries.  With  this  development  has  come 
the  attendant  results  of  material  prosperity.  Modern  con- 
ditions are  being  ushered  in  on  all  sides.  That  the  general 
economic  welfare  is  tremendously  improved  over  what  it 
was,  is  evidenced  by  the  fact  that  many  of  the  luxuries  which 
only  a  very  few  affected  in  the  eighties,  are  now  considered 
among  the  necessaries  even  of  the  poorer  economic  classes. 
Illiteracy  has  been  cut  down  until  it  is  probably  not  over 
one-fifth  what  it  was  in  1880,  and  the  general  public  are  now 
taking  an  interest  in,  and  learning  of,  things  and  events 
beyond  their  immediate  surroundings. 

QUERIES    REGARDING   THE   LONG    PERIOD   OF    SLOW    GROWTH 
AND  THE  RECENT  TRANSFORMATION 

The  long  period  of  little  or  no  progress,  and  the  radical 
transformation  since  the  eighties,  can  hardly  fail  to  impress 
even  the  most  casual  reader,  and  to  raise  in  his  mind  ques- 
tions as  to  the  causes  of  these  seemingly  anomalous  facts. 
Why  did  this  community  so  long  remain  in  a  compara- 
tively static  state?  What  was  the  principal  cause  or 
causes  of  the  great  awakening?  Have  the  factors  which  so 
long  delayed  progress  ceased  to  operate?     What  are  the 


239]   PROGRESSIVE  AND  RETROGRESSIVE  FACTORS     239 

chief  drawbacks  of  the  present  day?  To  him  who  has 
studied  at  all  attentively  the  pen  pictures  sketched  in  the 
preceding  pages,  the  answers  to  these  queries,  if  not  in  full 
at  least  in  part,  are  doubtless  already  quite  patent.  Out  of 
consideration,  however,  for  that  class  of  readers  which 
usually  takes  time  only  for  the  statement  of  a  thesis  and  the 
final  conclusions,  and  in  order  to  set  forth  concisely  just 
what  I  myself  consider  the  broad,  general  influences  shaping 
the  life  of  the  people  here  depicted,  I  have  appended  the 
discussions  following. 

ALLEGED  CAUSES  OF  THE  SLOW  DEVELOPMENT   EXAMINED 
AND   EVALUATED 

Agrarian  Policy  of  the  Lords  Proprietors. — One  of  the 
two  facts  which  have  been  the  most  frequently  claimed  by 
Carolinians  themselves  to  have  been  the  chief  drawbacks  to 
the  state's  early  development,  and  which  were  especially 
applicable  to  Chowan,  was  the  general  policy  of  the  Lords 
Proprietors  to  grant  to  any  one  person  only  about  what 
land  they  thought  there  was  a  possibility  of  his  putting  to 
some  practical  use.  The  excerpts  following  are  typical  of 
the  writings  on  this  point : 

Two  forces  tended  to  keep  it  [North  Carolina]  a  poor 
colony,  thus  giving  a  turn  to  its  later  character.  In  the  first 
place,^  it  was  the  policy  of  the  proprietors  to  grant  the  land  in 
small  holdings,  640  acres  being  the  usual  maximum  quantity. . . 

It  is  .  .  .  probable  that  the  economic  disadvantage  of  small 
estates  and  of  the  lack  of  commerce  [due  to  the  lack  of  har- 
bors] induced  the  better  class  of  immigrants  to  go  to  Virginia 
and  South  Carolina,  thus  leaving  North  Carolina  for  less  sub- 
stantial settlers.^ 

1  The  second  force  he  considered  to  be  the  lack  of  harbors,  cf.  infra, 
p.  243. 

2Bassett,  J.  S.,  Constitutional  Beginnings  of  North  Carolina,  Johns 
Hopkins  University  Studies,  vol.  xii,  pp.  1 10-12. 


240  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [240 

The  basis  for  the  notion  that  the  agrarian  policy  of  the 
Proprietors  was  detrimental  to  the  Albermarle  region,  is 
probably  a  letter  by  Tho.  Woodard,  appointed  by  the  Lords 
Proprietors  to  be  "  Surveyor  for  the  Countie  of  Albemarle." 
Writing  to  Collaton  (a  Lord  Proprietor)  in  June  1665,  he 
said,  among  other  things: 

. .  .  The  Proportione  of  Land  you  have  allotted  with  the  Rent 
and  Conditione  are  by  most  People  not  well  resented  and  the 
very  Rumor  of  them  dis-courages  many  who  had  intentions 
to  have  removed  from  Virginia  hether.  .  .  . 

And  it  is  my  Opinion  .  .  .  that  it  will  for  some  time  conduce 
more  to  your  Lordshipe  Profit  to  permit  men  to  take  up  what 
tracts  of  land  they  please  at  an  easie  rate,  then  to  stint  them 
to  small  proportions  at  a  great  rent,  Provided  it  be  according 
to  the  custome  of  Virginia.  .  .  . ;  their  being  no  man  that  will 
have  any  great  desire  to  pay  Rent  (though  but  a  farthing  an 
acre)  for  more  land  than  he  hopes  to  gain  by.  Rich  men 
(which  Albemarle  stands  in  much  need  of)  may  perhaps  take 
up  great  Tracts ;  but  then  they  will  endeavor  to  secure  Tenants 
to  help  towards  the  payment  of  their  Rent.  .  .  .  ^ 

Land  in  America  with  no  one  living  on  it  was  worth  noth- 
ing to  the  Proprietors,  and  their  only  object  in  limiting  the 
size  of  the  grant  to  any  one  person  was  to  secure  as  many 
bona-fide  settlers  as  possible,  and  to  have  them  live  thick 
enough  to  be  of  some  mutual  protection  to  one  another.  They 
were  willing  to  make  almost  any  concession  that  would  pro- 
mote the  population  of  their  domains,  as  they  themselves 
declared.  But  they  could  see  no  advantage  either  to  them- 
selves or  to  the  settlers  for  a  person  to  own  several  times 
as  much  as  he  was  able  to  utilize.^ 

The  instructions  of  the  Proprietors  on  two  or  more  oc- 
casions would  seem  to  set  640  acres  as  the  usual  maximum 

1  Col.  Records,  op.  cit.,  vol.  i,  p.  100. 
« Ibid.,  pp.  53-4,  186,  845-6. 


241  ]    PROGRESSIVE  AND  RETROGRESSIVE  FACTORS     241 

grant,  and  yet  it  is  quite  clear  that  there  was  always  a  pro- 
vision for  larger  grants  to  be  made  direct  from  the  Pro- 
prietors themselves/  indicating  that  they  were  ever  ready 
to  convey  as  much  land  to  any  one  person  as  he  was  able  to 
turn  to  advantage. 

In  1669,  among  other  instructions  to  the  governor  and 
council  of  Albemarle,  the  proprietors  gave  the  following : 

You  are  to  take  notice  that  we  doe  grant  unto  all  Free  persons 
that  doe  come  to  plant  in  Carolina  before  the  25th  of  Decem- 
ber 1672  And  are  above  the  age  of  sixteene  yeares,  sixty  acres 
of  Land  And  to  the  said  Free  persons  for  every  able  man 
servant  with  a  good  fyerlock  10  lbs.  of  powder  and  twenty 
pounds  of  Bullets  sixty  acres  For  every  other  sort  of  servant 
fifty  acres.- 

This  rather  looks  as  if  they  were  willing  to  supply  the 
greatest  plenty  of  land  to  all  honest  settlers.  Furthermore, 
the  order  to  grant  but  640  acres  to  one  person  seems  to  have 
been  interpreted  in  Albemarle  as  meaning  that  no  person 
should  be  granted  more  than  640  acres  in  one  place.  ^ 

On  purely  selfish  grounds  the  Proprietors,  presuming 
they  had  ordinary  intelligence,  would  naturally  have  done 
everything  they  reasonably  could  do  to  attract  the  more 
"  substantial  "  settlers,  and  as  a  matter  of  fact  this  class  of 
settlers  did  come,  as  is  attested  by  contemporary  historians.* 
It  is  also  a  fact  that  large  grants  were  made.^  At  the  first 
U.  S.  census  enumeration  (1790)  the  colored  population  of 
Chowan  county  outnumbered  the  white,  and  with  one  excep- 
tion has  done  so  in  every  enumeration  since.®  In  view  of 
the  fact  that  the  colored  people  were  mostly  slaves,  and  the 

1  Col.  Records,  op.  cit.,  pp.  186,  556,  706.  -  Ibid.,  vol.  i,  p.  182. 

3  Ibid.,  vol.  i,  p.  186  and  vol.  ii,  p.  457-  *  <^f-  supra,  p.  24. 

5  Colonial  Records,  op.  cit.,  vol.  i,  pp.  845-6.      «  Cf.  table  4,  P-  264. 


242  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [242 

further  fact  that  only  the  comparatively  well-to-do  people 
owned  slaves,  the  large  number  of  blacks  in  Chowan  is  a 
further  evidence  that  "  substantial  "  settlers  did  come  in. 

Even  in  1880  from  eight  to  ten  acres  were  about  as  much 
ground  as  one  person  could  work.  Certainly  in  the  17th 
and  1 8th  centuries,  when  the  means  and  methods  of  farm- 
ing were  still  poorer  and  the  crops,  except  cotton,  much  the 
same  as  they  were  in  1880,  one  person  could  cultivate  no 
greater  number  of  acres.  On  this  basis  a  640-acre  tract  would 
need  thirty  or  forty  able-bodied  laborers  to  cultivate  it,  even 
though  only  half  of  it  was  worked.  At  least  half  as  many 
more  would  be  needed  for  domestic  manufactures  and  gen- 
eral household  duties.  Thus  the  usual  grant  was  quite  suffi- 
cient for  the  agricultural  operations  of  fifty  or  sixty  able- 
bodied  men  and  women.  Not  many  settlers  came  to  America 
in  colonial  days  who  were  able  to  put  in  the  field  so  large  a 
force.  Furthermore,  the  hogs,  cattle  and  sheep^ — which  were 
among  the  main  sources  of  food,  clothing,  and  other  articles 
of  consumption — had  free  range  of  all  unfenced  land;  and 
little  or  none  was  fenced  except  what  was  under  cultivation. 
There  was  no  limit  to  the  number  of  live  stock  one  might 
let  loose  on  the  free  range.  Another  source  of  income  was 
the  forest  products.  There  is  scarcely  any  doubt  that 
the  settlers  gathered  as  much  of  these  as  they  chose  to  from 
any  and  all  land  yet  ungranted.  A  third  source  of  income 
was  the  sound  and  rivers,  which  in  the  spring  of  the  year 
were  teeming  with  fish.  These  three  great  sources  of  sup- 
plies, which  were  free  to  all  who  would  exploit  them,  to- 
gether with  a  640-acre  tract,  would  support  a  good-sized 
family. 

Considering  all  the  foregoing  facts,  it  is  rather  difficult  to 
see  how  the  land  policy  of  the  lords  proprietors  was  very 
prejudicial  to  Chowan. 

Lack  of  Harbors. — The  second  of  the  two  most  fre- 


243]    PROGRESSIVE  AND  RETROGRESSIVE  FACTORS     243 

quently  alleged  causes  for  the  slow  progress  prior  to  recent 
years,  was  the  lack  of  good  harbors,  or  more  strictly  speak- 
ing, the  lack  of  access  to  the  harbors  pennitting  direct  trade 
with  the  outside  world.     Says  Bassett : 

In  the  second  place  [the  first  was  the  above-discussed  policy 
of  the  Proprietors]  the  earliest  settlements  in  the  state  were  in 
that  part  [at  first  Chowan  and  Perquimans  and  later  the  tide- 
water section  in  general]  where  uncertain  harbors  prevented 
a  direct  trade  with  England.  The  settlers  were  thus  left  to 
an  unprofitable  commerce  with  older  communities  in 
America.  .  .  .  ^ 

Much  testimony  similar  to  the  above  might  be  piled  up, 
but  to  do  so  would  be  unnecessary,  since  the  question  of 
transportation  has  already  been  discussed.  It  should  ever  be 
remembered,  however,  that  the  lack  of  transportation  fa- 
cilities was  a  very  real  and  vital  handicap,  and  a  handicap 
which,  tho  at  various  times  it  has  been  greatly  decreased,  is 
still  far  from  being  a  negligible  quantity. 

Civil  War. — In  recent  times  the  one  thing  most  fre- 
quently cited  by  Carolinians  as  causing  their  state's  slow 
development  during  the  last  three  decades  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  is  the  effect  of  the  Civil  War.  Many  of  the  leading 
men  of  Chowan  hold  very  strongly  to  the  same  opinion  as 
regards  the  progress  of  their  own  particular  county.  Omit- 
ting the  question  in  so  far  as  the  state  as  a  whole  is  con- 
cerned, let  us  examine  the  question  bearing  directly  on 
Chowan. 

What  are  the  facts  in  the  case?  In  the  first  place  no  reg- 
ular land  engagement  ever  took  place  in  or  near  the  border 
of  the  county.  Second,  while  there  were  a  few  horses 
taken,  some  provisions  and  clothing,  which  were  destined  for 

1  Constitutional  Beginnings,  op.  cit.,  p.  no. 


244  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [244 

the  Confederate  forces,  captured  along  the  water-courses, 
and  some  burning  (confined  largely  to  one  estate)  and  gen- 
eral pillaging  done  (mostly  by  the  ''Buffaloes")  ' — there 

1  In  the  early  part  of  the  Civil  War  there  was  a  detachment  of  Con- 
federate soldiers  encamped  at  Gatesville,  the  county  seat  of  Gates,  an 
adjoining  county  of  Chowan.  In  this  detachment  was  one  Jack  Fair- 
less,  a  native  of  Gates.  He  was  said  to  have  committed  theft,  and  for  the 
alleged  crime  was  taken  by  his  comrades  in  arms  to  the  side  of  a  swamp 
where  he  was  soundly  thrashed  and  one  side  of  his  head  was  shaved. 
(One  of  the  soldiers  who  helped  to  administer  the  punishment  Hved 
in  Chowan  till  his  death  several  years  ago.  He  was  known  to  me 
personally.)  Soon  after  this  episode,  Fairless  deserted  and  proceeded 
to  collect,  principally  from  Chowan,  Gates  and  Perquimans,  a  band  of 
followers,  who  very  probably  never  numbered  more  than  a  hundred. 
These  fellows  made  headquarters  at  Winfield,  a  large  estate  on  the 
Chowan  river.  They  called  themselves  "  Union "  men,  and  eventually 
secured  federal  uniforms,  but  when  the  Union  authorities  called  upon 
them  "  to  take  the  field,"  most  of  them  "  took  to  the  woods  "  instead. 
Few,  if  any,  ever  did  any  fighting,  their  activities  being  chiefly  that  of 
robbing  their  former  neighbors,  wantonly  destroying  their  property, 
and  pestering  them  in  general.  As  regards  pensions,  they  have  been 
treated  as  Union  soldiers. 

In  the  federal  reports  these  marauders  are  styled  *'  home  guards," 
but  down  in  the  section  of  their  origin  they  have  never  been  known 
by  any  other  name  than'  that  of  "  Buffaloes."  This  term  of  rank  oppro- 
brium is  applied  only  to  the  "home  guards,"  and  has  never  been 
used  to  designate  the  natives  in  general  of  the  North  Carolina  coast, 
as  Funk  and  Wagnalls'  New  Standard  Dictionary  implies. 

The  esteem  in  which  the  "  Buffaloes  "  were  held  by  the  federal  naval 
officers  who  knew  them,  is  indicated  in  the  official  reports  of  these  offi- 
cers, preserved  to  us  in  the  OfUcial  Records  of  the  Union  and  Confeder- 
ate Navies  (Washington,  D.  C,  1899). 

Lieutenant-Commander  C.  W.  Flusser,  U.  S.  S.  Commodore  Perry, 
Plymouth,  N.  C,  Sept.,  19,  1862,  writes  to  Commander  H.  K.  Daven- 
port, Newbern,  N.  C,  as  follows :  "  My  dear  Davenport :  I  sent  to 
Edenton  yesterday  to  arrest  some  thirty  men  who  had  formed  them- 
selves into  a  company  to  attack  our  home  guard  thieves  at  Winfield." 
(Offirial  Records,  series  i,  vol.  viii,  p.  y^-)  The  justification  for  this 
characterization  is  suggested  in  the  following  letter: 

U.  S.  S.  Shawsheen, 
Off  Plymouth,  N.  C,  September  28,  1862. 

Sir:  In  obedience  to  your  order,  I  submit  to  you  the  following  report 


245]   PROGRESSIVE  AND  RETROGRESSIVE  FACTORS     245 

was  no  great  amount  of  ruthless  destruction  of  property  and 
no  wholesale  foraging.  Third,  no  large  body  of  soldiers 
of  either  the  Northern  or  the  Southern  armies  ever  quartered 
in,  or  even  marched  thru,  Chowan.  Fourth,  no  large 
number  of  the  population  was  killed  during  the  war.  This 
statement  is  born  out  by  the  fact  that  from  i860  to  1870  the 
native  white  population  increased  3.4  per  cent,  which  was 
1.7  per  cent  greater  than  the  average  decennial  increase  for 
the  four  decades  previous.  Fifth,  prior  to  the  Civil  War 
most  of  the  best  land  of  the  county  was  held  in  large  tracts 
by  a  very  small  minority  of  the  people,  who  cultivated  it 
with  slaves.  Land  and  negroes  constituted  the  major  por- 
tion of  their  wealth,  and  since  farm-land  with  no  one  to  work 
it  is  of  little  immediate  value,  the  war,  by  freeing  the  slaves, 
wnped  out  much  of  the  wealth  of  the  slave-holding  class, 

in  regard  to  proceedings  of  a  company  of  home  guards  stationed  at 
Winfield,  Chowan  County,  N.  C.  On  my  arrival  there  on  the  i8th  of 
September  I  found  out  of  sixty-three  recruits  only  twenty  present;  the 
others  had  gone  to  their  homes  or  elsewhere,  as  they  chose.  The 
captain  was  in  a  state  of  intoxication,  threatening  to  shoot  some  of  his 
remaining  men,  and  conducting  himself  in  a  most  disgraceful  manner 
by  taking  one  man's  horses  and  making  other  people  pay  him  the  money 
to  pay  for  them,  and  this,  too,  from  people  who  were  well  disposed  to- 
wards our  Government.  He  had  some  eight  or  ten  horses  when  I  went 
there,  gotten  in  this  way.  He  has  no  control  over  his  men,  and  [by] 
the  manner  in  which  he  conducts  himself  he  is  doing  much  injury  to 
the  Cause  of  the  U.  S.  Government.  Some  of  the  men  that  have  gone 
have  taken  their  arms  or  guns  with  them ;  the  ammunition  has  all  been 
smuggled  out  and  sold  to  citizens  for  liquor ;  what  remaining  arms  there 
were  I  took  on  board  for  safe-keeping.  On  the  21st,  Captain  Fairkss 
went  off  and  left  his  men,  as  he  said,  to  go  to  New  Berne  by  way  of 
Suffolk.  His  men  say  they  will  serve  under  him  no  longer.  They  are 
now  left  in  charge  of  a  man  they  call  lieutenant,  with  no  clothing,  no 
rations;  are  dependent  on  the  county  for  subsistence. 
Very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

Thos.  J.  Woodward, 
Acting  Volunteer  Lieutenant,  Commanding. 
Lieutenant-Comm.ander  Chas.  W.  Flusser, 

Senior  Naval  OfUcer  Present. 
{Official  Records,  series  i,  vol.  viii,  p.  95)- 


246  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [246 

In  the  course  of  time  many  of  the  larger  estates,  it  being 
found  unprohtable  to  work  them  with  hired  labor,  were  cut 
up  into  small  tracts  and  sold  off  to  the  poorer  classes. 
Thus,  one  result  of  the  war  has  been  to  give  a  larger  num- 
ber of  the  county's  population  an  opportunity  to  own  a 
"  place  in  the  sun." 

So,  while  one  of  the  immediate  effects  of  the  war  upon 
the  better-to-do  classes  (a  very  small  proportion  of  the  pop- 
ulation) was  an  immense  shrinkage  of  their  wealth,  the 
masses,  even  of  the  whites — to  say  nothing  of  the  blacks, 
who  obtained  their  freedom — lost  little  or  nothing.  On  the 
other  hand,  taking  the  county  as  a  whole,  there  was  a  great 
gain  in  that  there  was  set  up  a  condition  destined  (i)  to 
break  up  many  of  the  larger  land  holdings  and  thus  permit 
more  of  the  poorer  classes  to  acquire  pieces  of  land  upon 
which  they  might  earn  a  living;  (2)  to  change  the  attitude 
of  a  majority  towards  labor.  These  two  processes — the 
subdividing  of  the  larger  tracts  of  land  and  the  changing  of 
the  attitude  towards  labor,  especially  the  latter  —  are  in  a 
large  measure  responsible  for  both  the  recent  great  increase 
in  per  capita  wealth  and  its  far  more  general  diffusion. 

From  the  foregoing  facts  it  would  seem  that  instead  of 
being  a  drawback,  the  Civil  War,  tho  operating  indirectly, 
nevertheless  has  been  the  most  potent  factor  in  stimulating 
progress. 

Slavery. — The  one  all-preponderant  factor  which  held 
back  Chowan,  as  well  as  the  South  in  general,  was  the  insti- 
tution of  slavery,  and  its  aftermath.  While  slaves  were 
not  as  abundant  here  as  in  some  other  sections  of  the 
country,  the  notion  that  work  with  one's  hands  was  not  hon- 
orable— a  notion  which  has  always  been  a  concomitant  of 
slavery  ^  everywhere — was  quite  prevalent.  Says  Helper, 
a  Southerner,  writing  in  1857 : 

1  As  one  of  the  contributing  causes  of  the  break-up  of  the  Roman 
Empire,  Robinson  gives,  "  the  existence  of  slavery,  which  served  to 


247]   PROGRESSIVE  AND  RETROGRESSIVE  FACTORS     247 

In  the  South,  unfortunately,  no  kind  of  labor  is  either  free  or 
respectable.  Every  white  man  who  is  under  the  necessity  of 
earning  his  bread  by  the  sweat  of  his  brow,  or  by  manual  labor, 
in  any  capacity,  no  matter  how  unassuming  in  deportment  or 
exemplary  in  morals,  is  treated  as  if  he  was  a  loathsome  beast 
and  shunned  with  the  utmost  disdain.^ 

If  this  false  attitude  towards  labor  always  disappeared 
when  its  progenitor,  slavery,  disappeared,  one  of  the  most 
serious  and  blighting  results  of  slavery  would  be  non-ex- 
istent. But  as  a  rule  the  long-standing  mental  conceptions 
of  a  whole  people  do  not  about-face  overnight.  The  people 
of  Chowan  present  no  exception  to  this  rule.  This  "  op- 
position to  white  labor,"  as  one  prominent  business  man  in 
the  county  put  it  to  me,  is  still  very  much  alive,  and  con- 
tinues to  retard  economic  progress,  and  since  all  other 
progress  is  limited  by  economic  progress,  continues  to  re- 
tard progress  in  general. 

In  one  of  a  series  of  unsigned  articles  appearing  in  The 
Newherne  Weekly  Journal  in  1888,  under  the  caption, 
"  Why  We  Do  Not  Flourish,"  the  writer  sums  up  his  views 
as  follows: 

The  prime  cause  of  our  trouble  is*  extravagance.  Extrava- 
gance is  waste.  Our  extravagance  is  very  plainly  a  waste  of 
time.  The  disposition  to  waste  time  —  to  be  lazy  —  some 
attribute  to  the  climate.  A  very  much  more  important  factor 
is  the  disposition  to  live  as  one's  neighbors  who  can  buy  and 
pay  for  us  a  dozen  times  over.^ 

discredit  honest  labor,  and  demoralized  the  free  workmen."  J.  H. 
Robinson,  History  of  Western  Europe  (Boston,  1903),  p.  13. 

^  Hinton  R.  Helper,  Impending  Crisis  of  the  South  (New  York, 
i860),  p.  41. 

'  The  Newherne  Weekly  Journal  (Newberne,  N.  C),  vol.  xi,  no.  4, 
April  26,  1888.  The  files  of  this  paper  were  consuhed  in  the  State 
Library,  Raleigh,  N.  C.  The  writer  is  here  speaking  of  the  whole 
eastern  section  of  North  Carolina,  and  what  he  says  applies  especially 
to  Chowan. 


248  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [248 

Furthermore,  this  spirit  of  "  opposition  to  white  labor  " 
carried  over  to  the  slave  population,  so  there  was  "  opposition 
to  black  labor."  What  was  the  result?  As  soon  as  the 
slaves  were  freed,  and  thus  given  the  right  to  put  their  senti- 
ments into  practice,  instead  of  half  the  population  trying  to 
lead  a  life  of  leisure,  the  whole  population  began  striving  for 
that  end. 

The  colored,  as  well  as  the  whites  of  the  lower  economic 
classes,  take  their  cue  from  the  whites  of  the  upper  crust, 
and  so  it  was  only  natural  that  they  should  be  overtaken  by 
this  pauperizing  attitude  toward  work.  The  way  the  blacks 
pattern  after  the  whites  was  pretty  well  summed  up  by  an 
old  colored  man  in  the  upper  end  of  the  county  five  or  six 
years  ago,  about  the  time  the  first  automobiles  came  in. 
Talking  to  a  white  friend  of  his  one  day  he  expressed  him- 
self about  as  follows : 

White  man  got  him  a  cart ;  nigger  got  him  a  cart.  White  man 
got  him  a  buggy ;  nigger  got  him  a  buggy.  Then  white  man  he 
goes  an'  gits  him  a  top-buggy.  Well,  nigger  gits  him  a  top- 
buggy,  too.  White  man's  boun'  he's  goin'  ter  git  ahead  o' 
mister  nigger,  an'  so  he  goes  an'  he  gits  him  a  'mobile.  Mis- 
ter nigger  got  ter  take  a  back  seat  now — caint  git  him  no 
'mobile.  But  jest  as  soon  as  white  man  begins  to  sell  his  secon' 
han'  'mobiles  mister  nigger  '11  have  him  one  sho.  You  betcher 
life  he  will! 

The  prophecy  of  this  keen  observer  is  already  being 
fulfilled. 

Not  only  is  slavery  responsible  for  much  of  the  present-day 
aversion  to  useful  physical  exertion,  but  most  of  the  slip- 
shod, wasteful,  inefficient  methods  of  agriculture  described 
in  chapters  iii-v  must  also  be  debited  to  its  account. 
The  attitude  which  slavery  engendered  not  only  prevented 

1  For  other  illustrations  of  this  copying  cf.  supra,  pp.  153,  i54- 


249]   PROGRESSIVE  AND  RETROGRESSIVE  FACTORS     249 

improvements  from  originating  here,  but  also  caused  the 
adoption  of  those  which  originated  elsewhere  to  be  delayed 
for  years  after  it  (slavery)  had  passed  away. 

Time  System.  —  A  third  retrogressive  factor,  and  one 
which  is  still  active,^  was  the  habit  of  buying  ''  on  time  " 
(on  credit).  Most  people  who  could  buy  on  time  did  so. 
In  preparing  the  first  annual  report,  the  state  commissioner 
of  labor  wrote  to  farmers  in  every  county  and  upon  the 
replies  received,  based  his  report.  In  this  document  he  com- 
ments as  follows : 

The  mortgage  and  lien  bond  system  gets  more  attention  [in  the 
replies  received  in  answer  to  the  Commissioner's  questions] 
than  any  other  topic,  and  very  properly,  because  the  facts 
gathered  and  presented  show  that  more  evils  have  come  to 
the  farmers  of  the  State  on  account  of  the  mortgage  and  lien 
bond  system  than  from  any  other,  and  indeed  from  every  other 
source.  It  has  proved  a  worse  curse  to  North  Carolina  than 
drouths,  floods,  cyclones,  storms,  rust,  caterpillars,  and  every 
other  evil  that  attends  the  farmer.  Wherever  they  have  de- 
pended upon  this  system  to  furnish  them  their  supplies,  the 
farmers  are  in  debt,  and  wherever  it  has  been  the  custom  of  the 
farmers  to  raise  their  own  supplies  there  the  people  are  free 
from  debt  and  the  community  thrifty.  The  cotton  belt  of 
North  Carolina  from  the  reports  made  is  worse  off  financially 
than  any  other  part  of  the  state.  This  may  be  attributed  to 
raising  a  money  crop.  It  is  an  easy  matter  to  sell  cotton  when 
it  is  gathered.  Cotton  is  as  easily  handled  almost  as  money, 
and  therefore  the  merchant  wants  cotton  for  his  supplies. 
He  does  not  want  hay,  clover,  grain,  potatoes,  &c.,  they  are 
too  much  trouble  to  handle,  and  when  a  farmer  proposes  to 
raise  these  articles  it  is  impossible  to  get  supplies  from  a  mer- 
chant.    The  merchant  insists  upon  a  cotton  crop,  because  of 

1  Of  the  several  merchants  interviewed  in  1915,  not  one  estimated  his 
time  business  at  less  than  50  per  cent  of  his  total  transactions  and  some 
placed  the  estimate  as  high  as  90  per  cent  of  the  total. 


250  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [250 

the  facility  with  which  he  can  handle  it.     The  same  may  to  a 
large  extent  be  said  of  a  landlord — rent  is  usually  demanded 
in  lint  cotton.     All  the  tendencies  in  the  cotton  belt,  therefore,, 
are  for  the  cultivation  of  money  crops,  and  the  results  are 
perfectly  apparent — the  farmers  of  the  cotton  belt  are  more 
heavily  mortgaged  than  any  other  section  of  the  State,  and 
they  are  worse  off  generally.     The  table  and  remarks  in  this 
chapter  prove  that  fact.     Take  the  figures  and  remarks  from 
twenty  of  the  mo^t  western  counties,  beginning  with  Cherokee, 
where  the  least  mortgaging  for  supplies  is  carried  on,  and  it 
will  be  found  that  the  farmers  are  better  off  and  there  is  a 
more  cheerful  spirit  than  in  the  cotton  belt  where  the  money 
crop  is  relied  on.  .  .  . 

In  the  eastern  counties,  the  average   [rate  of  interest  paid 
when  buying  on  time]  is  at  least  40  per  cent.  ...  A  farmer  who 

pays  it  is  carrying  on  a  useless  game,  in  which  he  must  sooner 
or  later  lose  all  he  has.  ...  It  is  useless  to  talk  about  diversi- 
fied crops  to  a  man  who  pays  40  per  cent  for  supplies.     There 
is  no  system  of  diversified  crops  that  will  enable  him  to  pay 
such  a  price  it  makes  no  difference  what  kind  of  a  crop  may  be 
raised.  .....  The  facts  and  the  figures  in  this  chapter  alike 

prove  that  the  bane  of  the  North  Carolina  farmer  is  the  lien 
bond  and  mortgage  system,  and  their  sequence  a  failure  to 
raise  home  supplies.^ 

Commissioner  Jones  uses  rather  strong  language  in  his 
comments  upon  the  time-system,  and  without  doubt  it  was 
and  continues  a  great  drawback  to  the  people.  The  time- 
system,  however,  was  only  a  secondary  or  derived  factor, 
due  largely  to  the  opposition-to-labor  attitude,  which  in  turn 
was  sired  and  fostered  by  slavery,  as  brought  out  above. 
Indeed,  the  very  extracts  here  quoted  are  evidence  tending 
to  prove  that  slavery  had  much  to  do  with  the  time-system. 

^-Commissioner  W.  N.  Jones.  First  Annual  Report  of  the  Bureau 
of  Labor  Statistics  of  the  State  of  North  Carolina  (Raleigh,  1887), 
pp.  7^-7- 


251]   PROGRESSIVE  AND  RETROGRESSIVE  FACTORS     25 1 

The  western  counties  where  the  commissioner  found  the 
least  mortgaging  for  supplies  and  the  most  cheerfulness, 
were  the  very  ones  in  which  slaves  were  the  fewest.  In 
Cherokee,  where,  according  to  the  report  of  1887,  there  was 
the  least  amount  of  mortgaging  going  on,  the  slave  popu- 
lation in  i860  was  less  than  six  per  cent  of  the  total.  Tak- 
ing the  territory  now  included  in  the  eleven  westernmost 
counties  (in  i860  this  territory  was  embraced  in  seven 
counties),  the  slave  population  was  less  than  eleven  per  cent 
of  the  total.  How  was  it  in  the  eastern  counties  where  the 
supply-system  was  at  its  worst?  In  Chowan,  in  i860,  more 
than  fifty-four  per  cent  of  the  population  were  slaves,  and 
in  the  eastern  counties  generally,  with  two  or  three  excep- 
tions, slaves  constituted  from  thirty  to  sixty  per  cent  of  the 
entire  population.^ 

One-crop  System.  —  The  one-crop  system  —  especially 
stressed  by  Jones  and  others — also  received  its  initial  im- 
petus directly  from  slavery.  Cotton  is  a  crop  which  re- 
quires no  very  special  care,  and  its  cultivation  in  accordance 
with  the  methods  of  slavery  days,  and  even  of  the  eighties, 
lent  itself  to  standardization  more  readily  than  did  that  of 
most  other  crops.  A  man  was  required  to  weed  so  many 
rows,  or  pick  so  many  pounds.  When  after  the  war  the 
freedman  began  farming  for  himself,  he  knew  more  about 
raising  cotton  than  anything  else,  so  quite  naturally  favored 
cotton,  as  did  the  landlords  and  merchants. 

Summary. — The  primary  factors,  then,  to  which  the  long 
sleep  of  this  section  was  due,  were,  first  and  foremost,  the 
false  attitude  toward  labor  engendered  by  slavery;  and, 
secondly,  the  lack  of  transportation  facilities.  Besides  the 
two  secondary  or  derived  factors — time-system  and  one-crop 

1  The  percentages  given  here  for  the  slave  population  are  calculated 
from  data  found  in  the  Eighth  U.  S.  Census  Report  (i860),  vol.  on 
Population,  pp.  358-9. 


252  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [252 

system  (already  noted),  both  children  of  slavery — there 
were  among  others  of  slavery's  progeny,  the  general  ignor- 
ance of  the  masses — ignorance  of  what  to  do  and  how  to  do 
it,  the  lack  of  forage  crops,,  the  lack  of  nitrogen  crops  for 
enriching  the  soil,  the  great  dearth  of  milk  cows,  and  dog- 
culture  instead  of  sheep-culture — all  tremendous  draw- 
backs. 

CAUSES  OF  THE  AWAKENING 

To  what  is  the  awakening  now  going  on  due  ?  There  are 
numerous  factors  which  have  contributed  and  which  still 
continue  to  operate.  A  certain  thing  produces  an  effect, 
which  in  turn  becomes  a  cause  producing  other  effects,  and 
so  on  ad  infinitum.  The  two  great  factors,  however,  which 
are  more  or  less  responsible  for  most  of  the  others  are  the 
changing  attitude  towards  labor,  a  metamorphosis  permitted 
by  the  abolition  of  slavery,  and  highly  accelerated  by  the 
second  great  factor — the  improvement  in  communication 
and  transportation  facilities,  or  as  Dr.  Richard  Dillard 
tersely  expressed  it  to  me,  "  the  whistle  of  the  locomotive." 

Railroads. — The  coming  of  the  railroads  has  given  to 
many  a  means  of  marketing  certain  products,  but  it  has  done 
something  far  more  significant  than  this — it  has  opened  up 
the  outside  world  to  large  numbers,  and  allowed  them  to  get 
acquainted  with  some  of  the  material  comforts  that  it  is 
possible  for  one  to  enjoy.  With  this  acquaintance  there  has 
been  aroused  in  some  the  ambition  to  own  a  greater  abund- 
ance of  the  good  things  of  this  world,  and  for  some  time  this 
ambition  has  been  supplanting  the  ambition  to  lead  a  life  of 
leisure.  In  other  words,  there  has  been  set  up  a  new  stand- 
ard of  values  which  is  largely  responsible  for  the  change  in 
the  whole  economic  and  social  aspect  of  the  county.  Work 
is  becoming  popular  with  many  in  the  better-to-do  classes, 
and  this  is  having  its  effect  on  the  less-well-to-do.     Com- 


253]    PROGRESSIVE  AND  RETROGRESSIVE  FACTORS     253 

paratively  few  eschewed  work  in  the  past  because  they  dis- 
liked physical  exertion,  but  rather  because  of  the  low  es- 
teem in  which  work  was  held,  and  so  only  a  change  in  social 
values  was  necessary  to  set  in  action  much  labor  force  that 
heretofore  had  been  a  potentiality  only. 

Change  of  A  ttitude  Towards  Labor. — Since  Chowan  pos- 
sesses a  genial  climate  and  a  comparatively  fertile  and  easily 
tilled  soil,  and  possesses  neither  good  accessible  harbors, 
mineral  wealth,  nor  water  power,  very  naturally  the  people 
have  turned  to  the  soil  for  their  chief  income.  With  a 
change  of  attitude  towards  work,  more  people  have  ceased 
to  use  their  heads  merely  for  hat-racks.  They  now  bethink 
themselves  not  of  how  they  can  escape  labor,  but  rather  of 
how  they  may  get  the  greatest  possible  return  for  their  labor, 
which  is  quite  a  different  attitude.  This  change  of  view- 
point has  meant  the  adoption  of  better  tools  and  better  meth- 
ods. Now  and  then  there  has  been  one  who  has  had  the 
common  sense  and  the  courage  to  admit  to  himself  that  pos- 
sibly he  did  not  know  absolutely  all  there  was  to  be  known 
about  farming  even  tho  he  had  been  on  a  farm  all  his 
life.  In  this  state  of  teachableness  he  has  begun  to  read 
the  farm  journals.  Of  course,  he  has  not  been  able  to 
accept  at  once  all  the  theories  put  forth,  but  he  has  tried 
out  some  of  those  which  have  seemed  the  most  reasonable 
to  him.  It  has  taken  courage  to  do  this,  especially  because 
of  the  fact  that  frequently  his  neighbors  have  attempted  to 
ridicule  him  about  "  trying  to  farm  by  the  newspapers." 
But,  as  he  has  found  that  the  new  theories,  when  followed, 
produce  better  results  than  former  practices,  he  has  gathered 
fresh  courage  and  enthusiasm  which  have  gradually  spread 
to  the  least  tminstructible  of  his  neighbors.  There  are  still 
those  who  think  that  they  know  all  that  there  is  to  be  known 
about  farming,  altho  they  have  never  read  anything  on 
the  subject,  and  yet  even  these  are  adopting  a  few  of  the 


254  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [254 

new  improvements  in  methods  and  machinery  which  they 
see  their  neighbors  using.  Some  of  them  do  not  know  any 
better  than  to  think  that  most  of  the  ideas  that  they  are 
taking  from  others  originated  with  themselves,  but  they 
nevertheless  are  producing  more,  which  is  the  main  thing  just 
now,  for  their  children  will  thereby  be  given  a  better  oppor- 
tunity to  obtain  the  right  point  of  view  and  some  knowl- 
edge of  the  true  principles  of  agriculture. 

With  the  change  of  attitude  towards  work,  not  only  has 
there  been  more  work  done,  but  each  working  unit  has 
gradually  become  more  and  more  productive.  Increased 
production,  due  to  both  a  greater  amount  of  work  and  more 
efficient  work,  has  made  possible  the  realization  of  certain 
of  the  newly  aroused  ambitions,  which  in  turn  has  served 
to  stimulate  to  still  higher  ambitions,  and  thus  what  was  an 
effect  has  become  a  cause  to  produce  a  still  greater  effect. 

Diversification  of  Crops. — A  third  factor  has  been  an 
increase  in  the  number  of  money  crops.  Until  the  nineties, 
cotton  had  for  years  been  the  main-stay  for  ready  cash.  Of 
course,  there  was  the  fish,  pork,  bacon,  cattle,  eggs  and 
poultry,  but  cotton  brought  in  more  than  all  the  others  put 
together,  and  was  the  crop  relied  upon  for  money  by  most 
of  the  larger  farmers.  In  1890  the  average  annual  price  for 
upland  middling  on  the  New  York  market,  was  above  eleven 
cents.  It  then  began  a  downward  trend  which  it  continued 
till  1898,  reaching  an  average  for  that  year  of  less  than  six 
cents.^  During  the  latter  part  of  this  period  thousands  of 
bales  were  sold  which  netted  the  farmer  less  than  five  cents 
a  pound — a  price  well  below  the  actual  labor  cost  of  produc- 
ing it.  So  the  farmer  was  forced  to  turn  to  other  crops,  or 
else  play  a  losing  game.  A  few  peanuts  had  been  raised 
by  an  occasional  farmer  since  the  eighties,  but  some  of  these 

1  Cf.  Bulletin  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  no. 
181,  p.  no. 


^55]    PROGRESSIVE  AND  RETROGRESSIVE  FACTORS     255 

the  hogs  were  allowed  to  run  on,  and  the  crop  was  small  at 
best.  As  they  were  selling  at  a  fair  price,  the  farmers  began 
to  plant  more  and  more  of  them  for  market.  From  1902 
till  the  present  European  upheaval,  cotton,  generally  speak- 
ing, has  sold  pretty  well,  nevertheless  the  peanut  acreage 
has  continued  to  increase,  and  in  1909  was  equal  to  that  de- 
voted to  cotton.^ 

During  the  period  of  low  cotton  prices  a  third  crop — 
sweet  potatoes — began  to  be  raised  for  market.  The  prices 
on  these,  however,  are  rather  uncertain,  and  they  do  not 
always  keep  well,^  so  with  the  return  of  good  cotton  prices, 
and  with  peanuts  selling  well,  only  a  comparatively  few 
potatoes  have  been  shipped  in  the  more  recent  years. 

Rise  in  Prices. — A  fourth  factor  which  has  helped  to 
usher  in  better  conditions  has  been  the  more  or  less  general 
rise  in  the  price  of  practically  all  farm  products  since  about 
1902.  Manufactured  goods  also  have  advanced  in  price, 
but  on  the  whole  not  in  the  same  proportion  as  the  agricul- 
tural products  sold  by  the  Chowan  farmer;  so  the  farmer 
has  been  getting  the  long  end  of  the  deal,  as  compared  to 
what  he  got  formerly. 

PRESENT-DAY  VITALITY  OF  THE  OLD  RETROGRESSIVE  FACTORS 

All  the  retrogressive  factors,  both  primary  and  secondary, 
above  discussed,  are  still  operating,  but  with  an  ever-lessen- 
ing force.  The  means  of  transportation  for  non-perishable 
products  are,  for  most  sections,  fairly  good,  though  for  per- 
ishable stuff  they  are  still  rather  poor,  there  being  no  direct 

1  Cf.  table  8,  p.  271. 

2  Most  of  the  sweets  raised  for  market  are  dug  in  the  fall,  stored 
right  in  the  fields,  and  shipped  in  winter  and  spring.  The  manner  of 
storing  is  to  put  from  twenty  to  eighty  bushels  in  a  pile,  cover  with 
pine  straw,  and  then  with  earth.  Some  farmers  have  a  small  opening 
at  the  top,  and  build  a  shelter  over  the  whole  hill;  others  cover  the 
potatoes  "  head  and  ears,"  and  leave  them  without  shelter. 


256  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [256 

fast-freight  line  between  here  and  the  more  important  mar- 
kets, and  the  express  rates  being  higher  than  much  of  the 
produce  is  able  to  bear. 

While  opposition  to  labor  for  men,  as  a  social  principle,  is 
practically  a  thing  of  the  past,  the  same  can  hardly  be  said 
as  regards  labor  for  women.  There  are  still  some  who  feel 
it  beneath  their  dignity  to  engage  in  any  sort  of  useful  work, 
and  consider  it  a  mark  of  enviable  distinction  to  lead  a  use- 
less, parasitic  life.  Furthermore,  their  attitude  is  looked 
upon  with  favor  by  certain  of  the  male  sex  who  think  that 
every  honorable  man  should  strive  to  support  his  wife  and 
daughters  in  idle  leisure.  Even  many  of  the  women  who  are 
forced  to  work  for  a  living,  have  so  far  imbibed  these  false 
ideas  towards  work,  that  when  caught  at  it,  they  feel  much 
compromised  and  quite  often  immediately  proceed  to  give  a 
lengthy  excuse  for  being  thus  engaged.  A  few  of  the  most 
advanced  and  optimistic  thinkers,  however,  observing  the 
progress  recently  made  along  economical,  psychological,  and 
sociological  lines,  believe  that  their  fellowmen  and  women 
of  Chowan  will  ere  long  throw  overboard  such  poverty- 
making,  life-blighting,  soul-destroying  notions  and  accept 
in  their  stead  the  modern,  democratic,  socialized  point  of 
view — the  point  of  view  that  not  only  each  man,  but  each 
woman  as  well,  unless  incapacitated,  should  pull  her  own 
weight,  and,  in  addition,  contribute  something  to  the  general 
public  good. 

Already  there  is  a  growing  sentiment  in  the  county  that 
any  able-bodied  person,  man  or  woman,  who  fails  to  earn 
his  or  her  own  support  is  either  a  mendicant  or  a  thief  and 
should  be  dealt  with  accordingly.  When  this  sentiment  be- 
comes general,  as  it  seems  destined  to  do,  then  the  shirkers 
and  not  the  workers  will  be  on  the  defensive ;  then  the  wo- 
man caught  working  will  not  feel  called  upon  to  apologize, 
but  the  woman,  as  well  as  the  man,  who  persists  in  constant 


257]   PROGRESSIVE  AND  RETROGRESSIVE  FACTORS     257 

loafing  —  persists  in  wasting  good  food  which  otherwise 
might  go  to  make  brain  and  brawn  that  would  enrich  the 
world — this  woman  will  feel  impelled  to  give  some  sort  of 
an  explanation  as  to  why  she  is  merely  encumbering  the 
earth. 

CHIEF  PRESENT-DAY  DRAWBACKS 

This,  the  closing  section,  need  be  little  more  than  a  brief 
recapitulation  of  the  rest  of  the  chapter.  We  saw  above 
that  the  long  sleep  was  due  apparently  to  the  combined  ef- 
fects of  slavery  and  the  lack  of  transportation  facilities; 
and  that  the  awakening  began  with  the  beginning  of  the 
change  in  attitude  towards  work  —  this  change  being  per- 
mitted by  the  abolition  of  slavery,  and  accelerated  by  the 
increasing  means  of  transportation,  which  operated  by  bet- 
tering the  opportunities  for  marketing  produce  and  by  open- 
ing up  to  the  people  the  outside  world.  We  have  seen  at 
every  stage  of  the  narrative,  as  well  as  in  the  sections  imme- 
diately preceding,  that  while  the  old  forces  of  retrogression 
are  gradually  being  weakened,  they  nevertheless  are  still 
powerful  enough  not  only  greatly  to  retard  the  county's  de- 
velopment but  actually  to  check  it  far  short  of  the  realiza- 
tion of  its  possibilities. 

Tho  no  new  retrogressive  factors  have  come  to  light 
within  recent  years,  the  old  ones,  as  above  intimated,  still 
have  sufficient  vigor  to  employ,  for  years  to  come,  the  efforts 
of  all  those  interested  in  the  county's  economic  and  social 
improvement.  There  is  the  false  attitude  towards  useful 
labor  still  existing.  There  is  still  a  deficiency  in  the  means 
of  transportation — in  the  wagon  roads,  in  the  railroads,  and 
in  the  waterways.  There  is  still  a  woeful  lack  in  the  formal 
training,  both  in  quantity  and  quality,  of  the  youth.  Illiter- 
acy is  still  very  prevalent,  and  aside  from  some  little  be- 
ginnings in  one  or  two  of  the  colored  districts,  no  effort 


258  CHOWAN  COUNTY,  NORTH  CAROLINA  [258 

is  made  in  the  schools  of  the  county  to  familiarize  the  child 
with  the  e very-day  things  of  life — the  things  with  which  he 
is  going  to  have  to  do  in  order  to  earn  a  living.  What  little 
training  the  school  gives  the  child  is  the  kind  which  "  tends 
to  educate  out  of  contentment  without  educating  into  effi- 
ciency " — tends  to  make  the  child  dissatisfied  with  his  pres- 
ent work  without  fitting  him  for  any  other. 

The  lack  of  proper  preparation  of  the  soil,  the  lack  of 
proper  cultivation  of  the  plant,  the  lack  of  forage-  and 
nitrogen-crops,  the  lack  of  animal  husbandry,  the  time- 
system — all  these  are  errors  which  it  will  take  a  long  time 
to  correct. 

The  most  hopeful  aspect  in  the  whole  situation  is  that  the 
awakening  has  actually  begun,  and  that  all  indications  seem 
to  justify  the  expectation  that  it  will  continue  till  the  vast 
majority  of  the  people  have  approached  their  potential  de- 
velopment under  the  then  existing  state  of  the  arts  and 
sciences. 


APPENDIX 
TABLES 


26l] 


APPENDIX 


261 


^  2; 


i 


u 


1 

a 
.2 

.•« 

?l 

0  »o      00 

is-s- 

:  : 

:  0.0. 

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1^ 

ilils 

.  Q  '^  < ;? 

Ul 

il 

■as 

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t<500  00   0   »0 

(i  d  (^  d  •-«' 

•  CO  N«  0  »n 

.     tN.00    ioNO 

:  w  d  d  M 

.  00  vo 

:  d  « 

III 

1 

III 

11 

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vd  »ot^d\ 

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1^ 

00  00  t>»t>. 
0  00  fOO 

« vd  t:.od 

iii 

'53 

1 
1 

1 

Q 

Mar.  17 
Feb. 12 
Feb.  13 

1 

•-I  w\o  to«       Tj-oo  mcs  w 

r^vooo 

rO« 

a°8    j 

i 

5 

Aug.  8 
June  30 
June  26 
Aug.  5 

July? 

July  19 
July  12 
July  19 
June  23 

June  30 
July  10 
June  20 

June  24 
Aug.  13 
July  14 

.§ 

K 

0>  ON  Ov  On  0 

^^^^ 

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\0  0  Loio 

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:  :  :  :  :     :  :  :  :  :     :  :  :  :  :     .  :  : 

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M     M     M     M     M              *• 

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ON  On  ON  ON  ON 

M    M     M     M    M 

Il   M   CO 
0N0\0\ 

l-l    M    M            I 

262 


APPENDIX 


[262 


TABLE  II ' 

Climatological  Data,  Chowan  County,  N.  C,  Edenton  Station  : 
1 896- 1 9 1 3—  Continued 


Year 


1896. 
1897. 
1898. 
1899. 
1900. 


1901. 
1902. 
1903. 
1904. 


1906. 
1907. 
1908. 
1909. 
1910. 


1911. 
1912. 
I9I3' 


Last  in 
spring 


1905 Apr.  17 


Apr.  8 
Apr.  22 
Apr.  6 
Apr.  6 
Apr.  5 


Mar.  17 
Mar.  7 
Apr.  5 

Apr.  20 


Mar.  21 
Apr.  2 
Apr.  4 
Apr.  II 
Mar.  16 


Mar.  24 
Mar.  17 
Mar.  18 


Frost 

1 
5       I 

Number 

ramy 

First 

in 

days 

autumn 

Oct. 

19 

114 

Nov. 

n 

114 

Nov. 

26 

103 

Oct. 

22 

99 

Nov. 

17 

76 

Nov 

.  7 

Oct. 

23 

% 

Oct. 

29 

Nov 

.7 

76 

Nov. 

14 

86 

Oct. 

12 

.. 

Oct. 

25 

75 

Nov 

.  2 

79 

Oct. 

14 

Oct. 

30 

84 

Nov 

•  3 

67 

Nov. 

16 

68 

Oct. 

22 

8. 

Sky 


137 

164 
140 

191 

201 


^73 
179 

163 
161 


138 
177 

163 
201 


135 

lOI 

107 

107 

58 


78 

85 

III 

90 


122 
88 

85 
'76 


Number 
cloudy 
days 


94 
100 
118 

67 
106 


114 

lOI 

92 
112 


106 
100 

117 
88 


*  Source :  North  Carolina  Section  of  the  U.  S.  Climatological  Service  of  the 
Weather  Bureau. 


263I  APPENDIX  263 

TABLE  III 
Computations  from,  and  Interpretations  of,  Tables  I  and  II 

Temperature  (degrees  Fahrenheit)  : 

Average  annual  mean 60.5 

Average  of  maximum  temperatures  ^ 96.6 

Average  of  minimum  temperatures ' 13.4 

Precipitation  (inches)  : 

Average  annual 49-39 

Average  variation  from  average  annual 5.49 

Average  highest  monthly  (1 896-1913)    7.75 

Average  lowest  monlhly  (1896-19x3) 1.09 

Average  number  of  rainy  days  annually 86 

Sky: 

Average  number  clear  days  annually 168 

Average  number  partly  cloudy  days  annually 96 

Average  number  cloudy  days  annually ...  loi 

Killing  Frosts : 

Latest  in  spring  (covering  18  years)  April  26.  In  18  years,  only  4 
later  in  spring  than  April  8.  Earliest  in  fall  (18  years)  October 
12.  Only  2  in  fall  earlier  than  October  22.  Average  annual 
number  of  days  between  the  last  killing  frost  in  spring  and  the  first 
in  fall 215 

The  fewest  possible  number  of  days  between  the  last  killing  frost  in 

spring  and  the  first  in  fall  ^ 1 73 

The  fewest  actual  number  of  days  in  any  year  between  last  killing  frost 
in  spring  and  the  first  in  fall 186 


*The  "average  of  maximum  temperatures"  is  obtained  by  taking  the  highest 
temperature  registered  each  year  during  the  period  1896-1913,  adding  these  to- 
gether, and  dividing  the  sum  by  the  number  of  years. 

'  Obtained  similarly  to  that  of  the  "  average  of  maximum  temperatures." 

'That  is,  from  the  latest  spring  frost  any  year  during  the  period  1896-1913  to 

the  earliest  fall  frost  during  this  same  period,  there  is  an  interval  of  173  days. 

The  earliest  and  latest  frost  did  not  happen  to  come  the  same  year,  hence  the 

fewest  actual  number  of  days  is  greater  than  the  fewest  possible  number  of  days. 


264 


APPENDIX 


[264 


TABLE  IV 1 
Color  and  Growth  of  Population  of  Chowan  County,  N.  C:  1790-1910^ 


Population  increase 

Per  cent,  of 

Population 

Population 

over  previous 
decade 

population 

per  square 
mile 

Year 

White 
2,382 

Colored ' 
2,629 

Total 
5,011 

Number  « 

Per  cent 

White 

Colored* 

Total 

Rural*- 

'S^ 

•  •  •  • 

.... 

47.5 

52.5 

30.4 

.... 

iSoo 

2,592 

2,540 

5.132 

121 

2.4 

50.5 

49.5 

311 

.... 

1810 

2,409 

2,888 

t,297 

165 

3-2 

45-S 

54.5 

32.1 

...» 

1820 

2.839 

3.625 

6,464 

1,167 

22.0 

43.9 

56.1 

39.2 

.... 

1830 

2,761 

3,936 

6,697 

233 

3.6 

41.2 

58.8 

40.6 



1840 

2,865 

3,825 

6,690 

—7 

—O.I 

42.8 

57.2 

40.5 

.... 

1850 

2,939 

3,782 

6,721 

31 

0.5 

43-7 

56.3 

40.7 

31.0 

1X60 

2,979 

3,863 

6,842 

121 

1.8 

43.5 

56.5 

41.5 

32.4 

1870 

3,081 

3,369 

6,450 

—392 

—5-7 

47.8 

52.2 

39.1 

3^6 

1880 

3,633 

4,267 

7,900 

1,450 

22.5 

46.0 

54.0 

47.9 

39.5 

1890 

4,010 

5,»57 

9,167 

1,267 

16.0 

43.8 

56.2 

55.5 

42.2 

1900 

4,406 

5.852 

10,258 

1,091 

11.9 

43.0 

570 

62.2 

43.7 

1910 

5,M4 

6,159 

",303 

1,045 

10.2 

45.5 

54.5 

68.5 

51.0 

*  These  data  are  compilations  and  simple  calculations  from  the  U.  S.  Census 
Reports. 

'This  includes  both  free  and  slave.  Prior  to  the  abolition  of  slavery  the  num- 
ber of  free  colored  at  each  census  enumeration  was  as  follows:  1790,  41;  1800,. 
67;   1810,  99;   1820,  156;   1830,  168;   1840,  160;    1850,  109;   i860,  150. 

■  A  minus  sign  ( — )  means  a  decrease. 

*The  average  excess  of  colored  over  white  for  the  thirteen  decennial  censuses 
is  10  per  cent. 

•Prior  to  1850  the  population  of  Edenton  was  not  given  separately  from  that 
of  the  rest  of  the  county. 


^65] 


APPENDIX 


265 


TABLE  V » 

Color  and  Nativity  of  Population  of  Chowan  County,  N.  C,  Edenton 
GIVEN  Separately:  i 850-1910 


Subject 

1850 
6,721 

i860 

6,842 
2.959 

1870 

6,450 

3,045 
24 
12 

3,369 

6,349 
74 

1880 

7,900 

3,627 

*"*6 
4,267 

7,736 
no 

1890 

9,167 

3,974 
13 
23 

5,157 

1900 

1910 

■ 
Total  population. •••••••••..«. 

10,258 
4,367 

5.852 

11,303 

5,1" 
14 

19 
6,159 

White  of— 2 

^fltivf*  narpnf jicTp     ....  .... 

Foreign  or  mixed  parentage 

20 
3,863 

Colored 

Birth  place  of  Native  Population 

Vircinia   ••••••  •••••*  •••••• 

West  Virginia 

II 
10 

9 

4 

4 

10 

1,382 
23.7 

New  York    



I 

South  Carolina 

All  other  states 

2 

1.243 
19.3 



Population  of  Edenton : 

Tntal  nnrjiilatinn    ..•_•  .-•..- 

1,607 

23.9 

i»o75 

532 

1,504 

22.0 

953 

551 

2,205 
24.0 

3,046 
29.7 

2,092 
954 

922 
19 
13 

2,789 

1^669 
1,120 

Per  cent  of  county 

Colored 

White 

White  of— 

Native  oarentaffe 

1,100 

Foreign  or  mixed  parentage 

7 
13 

*  Source :    U.  S.  Census  Reports. 

'The  censuses  for  1850,  i860  and  1880  did  not  publish  separately,  by  counties, 
the  '*  white  of  native  parentage  "  and  the  "  white  of  foreign  or  mixed  parentage.' ' 


266  APPENDIX  [266 

THE   U.    S.    CENSUS    DEFINITION    OF   "  FARM    LANDS,"    "  FARM,'' 
'*  FARMER,"    ''improved    LAND,"    AND 

**  unimproved  land." 

A  "  farm  "  for  census  purposes  is  all  the  land  which  is  di- 
rectly farmed  by  one  person  managfing-  and  conducting-  agri- 
cultural operations,  either  by  his  own  labor  alone  or  with  the 
assistance  of  members  of  his  household  or  hired  employees. 
The  term  **  ag-ricultural  operations  "  is  used  as  a  general  term 
referring  to  the  work  of  growing  crops,  producing  other  agri- 
cultural products,  and  raising  animals,  fowls  and  bees.  A 
"  farm  "  as  thus  defined  may  consist  of  a  single  tract  of  land,  or 
a  number  of  separate  and  distinct  tracts,  and  these  several  tracts 
may  be  held  under  different  tenures,  as  where  one  tract  is 
owned  by  the  farmer  and  another  tract  is  hired  by  him.  Fur- 
ther, when  a  landowner  has  one  or  more  tenants,  renters, 
croppers,  or  managers,  the  land  operated  by  each  is  considered 
a  **  farm." 

Enumerators  were  instructed  to  report  as  a  "  farm  "  any 
tract  of  three  acres  or  more  used  for  agricultural  operations, 
no  matter  what  the  value  of  the  product  raised  upon  the  land 
or  the  amount  of  labor  involved  in  operating  the  same  in 
1909.  In  addition  they  were  instructed  to  report  as  farms  all 
tracts  containing  less  than  3  acres  which  either  produced  at 
least  $250  worth  of  farm  products  in  the  year  1909,  or  re- 
quired for  their  agricultural  operations,  the  continuous  services 
of  at  least  one  person.* 

In  1880  the  instructions  were  as  follows:  *'  Farms,"  for  the 
purpose  of  the  agricultural  schedule,  include  all  considerable 
nurseries,  orchards,  and  market  gardens,  which  are  owned  by 
separate  parties,  which  are  cultivated  for  pecuniary  profit,  and 
employ  as  much  as  the  labor  of  one  able-bodied  workman 
during  the  year.  Mere  cabbage  and  potato  patches,  family 
vegetable  gardens,  and  ornamental  lawns,  not  constituting  a 
portion  of  the  farm  for  general  agricultural  purposes,  will  be 
excluded.     No  farm  will  be  reported  of  less  than  3  acres,  un- 

'^Thirteenth  Census  (1910)  vol.  v,  p.  22. 


267]  APPENDIX  267 

less  five  hundred  dollars  worth  of  produce  has  actually  been 
sold  off  from  it  during  the  year/ 

For  1890  the  definition  of  a  farm  was  essentially  the  same 
as  for  1880.  For  1900  the  instructions  said  :  A  farm,  for  cen- 
sus purposes,  includes  the  land  under  one  managfement,  used 
for  raising"  crops  and  pasturing  live  stock,  with  the  wood  lots, 
swamps,  meadows,  etc.,  connected  therewith,  whether  consist- 
ing of  one  tract  or  of  several  separate  tracts  .  .  .  Market, 
truck,  and  fruit  gardens,  orchards,  nurseries,  cranberry  marshes, 
green  houses,  and  city  dairies  are  "  farms  ":  Provided,  the  en- 
tire time  of  at  least  one  individual  is  devoted  to  their  care. 
This  statement,  however  does  not  refer  to  gardens  in  cities  or 
towns  which  are  maintained  by  persons  for  use  or  enjoyment 
of  their  families  and  not  for  gain/ 

A  **  farmer  "  or  *'  farm  operator,"  according  to  the  census 
definition,  is  a  person  who  directs  the  operations  of  a  farm. 
Hence,  owners  of  farms  who  do  not  themselves  direct  the  farm 
operations  are  not  reported  as  **  farmers."  Farmers  are  di- 
vided by  the  Bureau  of  the  Census  into  three  general  classes 
according  to  the  character  of  their  tenure,  namely,  owners, 
tenants,  and  managers.^ 

Farm  land  is  divided  into  (i)  improved  land,  (2)  wood- 
land, and  (3)  all  other  unimproved  land.  Improved  land  in- 
cludes all  land  regularly  tilled  or  mowed,  land  pastured  and 
cropped  in  rotation,  land  lying  fallow,  land  in  gardens,  or- 
chards, vineyards,  and  nurseries,  and  land  occupied  by  farm 
buildings.  Woodland  includes  all  land  covered  with  natural 
or  planted  forest  trees,  which  produce,  or  later  may  produce 
firewood  or  other  forest  products.  All  other  unimproved  land 
includes  brush  land,  rough  or  stony  land,  swamp  land  and 
any  other  land  which  is  not  improved.'* 

The  Census  Bureau  did  not  attempt  to  secure  a  report  of 

*  Tenth  Census  (1880)  vol.  iii,  p.  ix. 

*  Twelfth  Census  (1900)  vol.  v,  p.  xiv. 
^Thirteenth  Census  (1910)  vol.  v,  p.  24. 
^Ibid.,  p.  25. 


268  APPENDIX  [268 

the  acreagfe  and  value  of  all  land  suitable  for  agfriculture.  It 
did  not  take  any  account  of  such  land  held  solely  for  specula- 
tive purposes  and  not  actually  utilized  for  agricultural  pro- 
ductions. It  did  not  account  for  land  owned  by  states  or  the 
United  States,  or  of  land  occupied  by  forests  if  not  in  the 
same  tract  as  land  used  for  agriculture/ 

The  total  land  in  farms  by  no  means  equals  .  .  .  the  total 
area  of  the  county  or  of  the  state.  .  .  .  The  difference  is  made 
up  of  many  items.  There  are  the  sites  of  buildings  and  the 
grounds  connected  with  them,  whether  isolated  or  in  villages 
or  cities ;  there  is  the  space  covered  by  public  highways,  ca- 
nals, and  railroads;  there  are  the  tracts  of  land  owned  by 
non-residents  or  by  persons  who  are  not  farmers.  In  this 
latter  class  of  lands  is  often  included  a  vast  extent  of  pasturage 
and  woodlands,  especially  the  latter.  In  some  states  the  great 
body  of  the  forests  is  held  by  speculators  or  lumber  mill  oper- 
ators, who  are  not  farmers  in  any  sense  of  the  term.^ 

'  Thirteenth  Census  (1910)  vol.  v,  p.  22. 
'  Tenth  Census  (1880)  vol.  iii,  p.  xi. 


269] 


APPENDIX 


269 


TABLE  VI I 

Land  Area,  Farms,  Farm  Property,  Chowan  County,  N.  C;  1880, 
1890,  1900  and  1910 


Number  and  Size  of  farms 

Population 

Number  of  farms  classified  by  size : 

Under  3  acres 

3  to  9  acres 

10  to  19  acres 

20  to  49  acres 

50  to  99  acres 

100  to  490  acres 

500  to  999  acres 

1000  acres  and  over 

Number  of  all  farms 

Color  of  farmers: 

White 

Colored 


Land  and  Farm  Area 

Land  in  farms acres  . . . 

Per  cent  of  land  area  in  farms  ' 

Improved  land  in  farms acres  . . . 

Per  cent  of  farm  land  improved  * 

Per  cent  of  land  area  improved  ' 

Average  number  acres  per  farm  * 

Average  number  improved  acres'  per  farm 
Approximate  land  area acres  . . . 

Value  of  Farm  Property 

All  farm  property dollars  . . 

Increase  over  previous  decade  ' .  dollars  . . 
Increase  over  previous  decade*. per  cent. 

Land  * dollars  . . 

Buildings dollars  .. 

Implements  and  machinery  ....  dollars  . . 
Domestic   animals,  poultry   and 

bees    dollars  .. 

Per  cent  of  value  of  all   farm 

property '  in — 

Land6 

Buildings .... 

Implements  and  machinery 

Domestic  animals,  poultry  and 

bees 

Average  Values : 

All  property  per  farm' dollars  .. 

Land  and  bldgs.  per  farm*    .  .dollars  .. 

Land  per  acre  ^ dollars  . . 


1S80 


7,900 


34 

76 

213 

166 

197 

18 

12 

716 


85*233 
80.7 

36,052 
45-3 
34.1 
119 

50-3 
105,600 


707.347 


607,909 
23,262 

76,176 


859 
33 

10.8 


849 
4.84 


1890 


9,167 


19 

54 
163 

196 
27 
10 

623 


913.390 
206,043 
27.7 


78i;,oio 
26,940 

[01,440 


85.9 
3.0 


1,466 

1,260 

6.59 


[900 


10,258 

6 
22 

\ 

^\^ 
187 

;i96 

2 
833 

538 
295 


80,773 

72,528 

76.6 

68.7 

32.863 

34i972 

48.2 

40.7 

30.9 

33.J 

130 

87.1 

52.7 

42.0 

105,600 

105,600 

I9I0 


11,303 


52 

360 

184 

10 

5 

983 

601 
382 


74,563 
70.6 

33,793 
45-3 
32.0 

75-9 

34.4 

105,600 


882,545   2,447,002 
— 39,845  f  1,5^4,457 


—03.4" 
493,300 
233,800 

40,040 

115.405 


55-9 

26.5 

4-5 

13.1 

1,059 
873 
6.80 


»77-3 

1.554,342 

534.785 

99.994 

264,881 


63.5 
21.9 

3.8 
10.8 

2,489 
2,125 
20.85 


1  Source:  U.  S.  Census  Rf ports. 

'  The  figures  lor  1880, 1890,  and  1900  are  my  own  calculations,  based  upon  the  U.  S.  Censo* 
data.  '  These  figures  are  my  own  calculations. 

■*  Figures  for  1890  and  1900  are  my  own  calculations.  '  Decrease. 

•  Neither  in  1880  nor  in  1890  were  the  values  of  the  land  and  the  buildings  recorded  lepanitely. 

^  The  value  of  the  land  in  1900  was  67.8  per  cent  of  the  value  of  the  land  and  buildings  taken 
together.  Since  the  values  ol  the  land  and  buildings  are  not  given  separ-ttely  for  cither  1880  or 
1890,  the  per  cent  tor  1900  is  taken  as  a  basis  for  the  separate  calculations  given  for  these  years. 


270 


APPENDIX 


[270 


TABLE  VII » 
Domestic  Animals,  Poultry  and  Bees  on  Farms,  Chowan  County,  N.  C.  : 

1880,  1890,  1900,  1 9 ID 


Domestic  Animals 
Farms  reporting  domestic  animals  .  • 
Value  of  domestic  animals  •••dollars 
Cattle : 

Total  number 

Dairy  cows 

Other  cows  ^ > 

Work  oxen  ^ 

Calves  * 

All  other  cattle 

Horses : 

Total  number 

Mature  horses 

Colts  (spring  and  yearling)  .... 
Mules : 

Total  number 

Mature  mules 

Colts  (spring  and  yearling)  .... 
Swine : 

Total  number 

Mature  hogs 

Spring  pigs 

Sheep : 

Total  number 

Goats  : 

Total  number 


PouVry  and  Bees 
Poultry^  (all  kinds): 

Total  number 

Chickens 

Turkeys 

Geese 

Ducks 

Value  of  all  poultry dollars . . 

Bees: 
Number  of  colonies 


1880 


2,394 
736 


163 

1,495 
653 

385 

8,475 

375* 


12,759 


[890 


2,382 
618 

137 

417 

1,210 

703 

677 

26 

406 


7,860 


525 


25,707 

22,062 

1,294 

1,366 

1,035 


1900 


2,571 
558 
641 

139 
559 
674 

998 

962 

36 

528 

524 
4 

10,482 


348 
241 


25,132* 

20,919 

575 

2,557 

1,081 

7,235 


[910 


952 
252,215 

2,303 
560 

737 

74 

402 

530 

897 
862 

35 

789 
778 


11,367 
5,183 
6,184 

7CI 

120 


24,373 


12,251 
344 


*  Source :   U.  S.  Census  Reports. 

*  The  term  "other  cows"  refers  to  those  that  are  breeders  only.  These  cows  are  not  milked 
during  the  year  in  which  the  enumeration  occurs.  Cows  that  are  not  milked  one  season  may  be 
milked  at  other  seasons.  In  both  the  tenth  and  the  eleventh  censuses,  "  other  cows  "  are  class- 
ified under  the  head  of,  "all  other  cattle." 

^  The  censuses  for  1900  and  for  1910  do  not  classify  work  oxen  separately.  The  figures  for  1900 
are  for  "  steers  3  years  old  and  over;"  those  for  1910  are  for  "  steers  and  bulls  over  2  years  old.'' 

■*  In  the  census  for  1800,  the  classification  is,  "  calves  dropped  in  1889."  In  the  1880  census, 
calves  are  classified  under  the  head  of  "  all  other  cattle." 

'  In  the  census  for  1890,  the  classification  is,  "horses  foaled  in  1880." 

*  "  Exclusive  of  spring  lambs." 

''  The  Eleventh  and  the  Twelfth  are  the  only  censuses  which  give,  by  counties,  the  number  of 
different  kinds  of  poultry. 

■  "  Exclusive  of  spring  hatching."        "  "  Number  of  fowls  3  months  and  over  on  June  i." 


271  ] 


APPENDIX 


271 


TABLE  VIII » 

Acreage,  Total  Production,  and  Production  Per  Acre,*  of  Principal 

Crops,  Chowan  County,  N.  C:  1879,  1889,  1899  and  1909 


Corn 

Wheat 

Oats    

Rice    

Peanuts 

Dry  Peas 

Hay  and  Forage. 

Sweet  potatoes. . 

Irish  Potatoes  . . 

Cane,  Sorghum. 
Cotton 


acres  

bushels 

bu.  per  acre .  • 

acres  

bushels 

bu.  per  acre . . 

acres  

bushels  .... 
bu.  per  acre . . 

acres  

pounds  

pounds  per  acre 

acres  

bushels 

bu.  per  acre .... 

acres  

bushels 

bu.  per  acre .... 

.acres  

tons 

. acres  

bushels 

bu.  per  acre .... 

. acres  

bushels 

bu.  per  acre .... 

-acres  

gallons 

acres  

bales« 

lbs.  of  lint  per 
acre 


1879 


13.877 

I43»»56 

10.3 

622 

4,357 
7.0 
791 

6,888 
8.7 


2l3 
113 

54 
10,327  * 

100 
68 

723 

62,247 

86 

100  * 
4,189 


99 
6,047 
2,014 

166.5 


1899 


12,941 

133*330 
10.3 
122 
963 

879 

8,638 

9.8 

193 

50,953 
264 
890 

29,276 
32.9 

231 

246 
180 

984 

5  7,802 

58.7 

120 

4,308 

35-9 

4 

140 

6,282 

2,254 

179 


12,583 

144,000 

11.4 


106 
800 

7-5 
109 

37,752 

346 

3,909 

167,921 

430 

131 
2,109 

595' 
611  ' 

931 
77,366 

83.1 

152 

10,097 


1909 


IS 

940 
4,769 
2,494 


261 


10,235 

107,878 
10.5 


172 

2,723 
15.8 


6,061 
234,526 

38.7 
100 
622 

39 

37 

1,155 

74,033 
64.1 
112 

6,919 

61.7 

8 

315 
6,163 
2,601 

212 


*  Compiled  from  the  volumes  on  agriculture  of  the  four  U.  S.  Census  Reports 
for  the  years  indicated,  except  where  it  is  stated  otherwise. 

^ "  Production  per  acre  "  are  my  own  calculations. 

'  The  1880  census  gives  no  data  on  peanuts.  These  figures  are  from  ^t.Hand 
Book  of  North  Caiolina  issued  by  Commissioner  L.  L.  Polk  in  1879,  pp.  212-18. 

*  The  acreage  for  peas  is  not  given  in  either  the  1880  or  the  1890  Census. 
Cf.  supra,  pp.  65,  65. 

*  Estimated  acreage,  using  the  number  of  bushels  per  acre  in  1890,  as  a  basis. 
•These  figures  are  for  the  standard  bale  of  500  pounds.     C/.  supra,  foot-note, 

p.  46. 

'  I  feel  quite  certain  that  these  figures  are  much  too  large.  It  will  be  observed 
that  they  are  far  above  the  figures  for  either  of  the  other  census  years.  In  all 
probability  there  were  not  over  100  acres  in  hay  in  1899.  Probably  90  per  cent 
of  the  forage  is  "  fodder."     Cf.  supra,  p.  65. 


272 


APPENDIX 


[272 


TABLE  IX » 

Live-Stock  Products  and  Domestic  Animals  Sold  or  Slaughtered 

ON  Farms,  Chowan  County,  N.  C.  :  1879,  1889,  1899  and  1909 


Dairy  Products 
Dairy  cows  on   farms  reporting  on 

dairy  products number 

Dairy  cows  on  farms  reporting  milk 

produced    number 

Farms  reporting  dairy  products    ....  number 

Milk — Produced gallons 

Sold gallons 

Butter — Produced pounds 

Sold pounds 

Value  of   dairy  products,   excluding 

home  use  of  milk  and  cream dollars 

Value  of  all  dairy  products dollars 

Receipts  from  sale  of  dairy  products  .dollars 

Poultry  Products  \ 

Poultry — Raised number! 

Raised — value dollars 

Sold number 

Eggs — Produced dozen 

Sold    dozen 

Value  of  poultry  and  eggs  produced,  .dollars 

Receipts  from  sale  of  poultry  and  eggs  dollars 

Honey  and  Wax 

Honey  produced pounds 

Wax  produced pounds 

Wool 

Wool — Fleeces  shorn number 

Number  of  pounds 

Domestic  Animals  Sold  or  Slaughtered 

Calves — Sold  or  slaughtered   number 

Other  cattle — Sold  or  slaughtered.  ..number 

Cattle — Died number 

Horses  and  Mules — Sold number 

Swine — Sold  or  slaughtered number 

Swine — Died number 

Sheep  and  Goats — Sold  or  slaught-  | 

ered number 

Receipts  from  sale  of  live  animals   .  .dollars 
Value  of  aniiuais  slaughtered dollars 


1879 

1.539 
5.960 

1889 
51,627 

*5*.928 
1 

24,024 

34,029 

4,286 
308 

2,443 
112 

1,172 

427 
1,395 

69,854 

84 

**/,6^5' 
2,100 

1899 


270 

73,302 
1,819 
7,900 
439' 


12,273 
541 


11,404 
86,560 


4,710 
380 


237 
924 


3,396 
49,352 


*  Source :    U.  S.  Census  Beports. 

*  Calculated  from  the  value  of  the  amount  produced  and  the  value  of  the  amount 
consumed,  both  of  which  are  given  in  the  twelfth  census. 

'The  term  used  in  the  1890  Census,  is  "  swine  consumed,"  meaning,  I  presume, 
the  number  slaughtered. 


273] 


APPENDIX 


273 


TABLE  X 1 

Farms  Classified  by  Size,  Average  Number  of  Acres  per  Farm  in  Each 

Class,  Averace  Number  of  Improved  Acres  in  each  Class,  and 

Average  Number  of  Farms  in  Each  Class,  Chowan 

County,  N.  C.  :  1880,  1890,  1900  and  19 10 


Farms 


Under  3  acres 

3  to  9  acres 

10  to  19  acres.. .. 

20  to  49  acres.. .. 

50  to  99  acres . . . . 

100  to  499  acres  ... 

500  to  999  acres.. . . 

1000  anJ  over  acres 


Average 
no.  acres 
per  farm 


6.0 

14.4 

34.5 

745 

249-5 

749.5 


Average  number  improv- 
ed acres  per  farm  in 
each  class  ^ 


1880 


1890 


2-5 

6.1 

146 

31.5 

105.5 


2.4 

5-9 
14.0 

30.3 
101.5 


1900 


2.9 

7.0 
16.6 

359 
120.2 


317.0  305.0  361.3 


1915 


2.7 

6.7 

15.6 

33'^ 
II  3.0 

339-5 


Number  of  Farms  in 
each  class 


880 

1890 

1900 

6 

34 

19 

22 

76 

54 

«5 

213 

163 

3»^ 

166 

IS4 

187 

1-7 

196 

196 

18 

27 

19 

12 

10 

2 

52 
117 
360 

184 

10 
5 


*The  "Average  no.  acres  per  farm  "  and  the  "  Average  no.  improved  acres  in 
each  class  "  are  calculations  from  the  U.  S.  Census  Reports.  The  other  data  are 
compilations  from  the  same  source. 

'^  The  "  Average  no.  improved  acres  per  farm  in  each  class  "  is  obtained  for  the 
various  classes  as  follows :  Find  what  per  cent  of  farm  lands  were  improved  for 
the  year  desired.  The  product  of  this  per  cent  by  the  "  average  no.  acres  per 
farm  "  for  any  class,  gives  the  **  average  no.  improved  acres  per  farm  "  for  that 
class.  For  example,  the  average  number  of  acres  in  the  class,  «'  20  to  49  acres  " 
is  34.5.  In  i88o  45.3  percent  of  farm  land  was  improved.  Novy  45.3  percent 
of  34.5  acres  gives  14.6  acres,  which  is  the  average  amount  of  improved  land  in 
1 880  in  farms  ranging  from  20  to  49  a^res.  For  per  cent  of  farm  land  improved 
cf,  supra t  table  vi,  p.  269. 


274 


APPENDIX 


[274 


TABLE  XI » 

•*  Work  Animals  "  on  Farms,  Acres  of  Improved  Land  per  "Work 

Animal,"  and  per  "  Standard  Work  Animal,"  Chowan 

County,  N.  C.  :  1880,  1890,  1900  and  1910 


Horses 

Mules 

Work  Oxen 

Total  number  animals 

Number  of  "  work  animals  "  ^. .  . . 
Number  of  "  standard  work  animals  "  ^^^ 
Number  improved  acres  per : 

"  Work  animal " 

"  Standard  work  animal "  .... 


1880 

1890 

1900  1 

653^ 

703*^ 

9623 

385^ 

406'^ 

5243 

163 

137 

139  * ! 

1,201 

1,246 

1,625   1 

1,141 7 

1,186  ' 

1,551 ' 

1,060 

1,118 

1,501 

1  31-6 

27.7 

«.5 

34 

29.4 

23.3 

I9I0 


762* 
771 » 

1,607 

1,518' 
1,508 '» 

22.3 
22.4 


*  The  figures  for  the  number  of  animals  are  taken  direct  from  the  U.  S.  Census 
Reporis.  The  remaining  figures  are  my  own  calculations  from  the  same  reports. 
Cf,  suprOf  table  7  and  foot-notes  to  same,  p.  270. 

'All  animals  both  mature  and  immature  are  included  in  this  figure,  the  cen- 
suses for  1880  and  for  1890  making  no  separate  report  for  the  two  classes. 
*A11  animals,  except  yearlings  and  spring  colts. 

*  This  figure  is  for  "  All  steers  3  years  old  and  over." 

*  "  All  steers  and  bulls  over  2  years." 

*  The  "  work  animals  "  are  all  mature  horses  and  mules,  and  and  all  work  oxen, 
in  other  words,  the  total  number  of  beasts  of  burden,  less  the  immature  horses 
and  mules. 

'  Immature  horses  are  estimated  to  be  60. 

*  Deductions  are  made  for  39  steers  not  work  oxen,  and  for  35  immature  horses 
and  mules  (the  figures  in  each  case  are  my  own  estimates). 

'Deductions  are  made  for  54  steers  and  bulls  not  work  oxen,  and  for  35  imma- 
ture horses  and  mules.     (These  figures  are  my  own  estimutes). 

'®A  horse,  or  mule  old  enough  to  do  regular  work,  is  taken  as  the  "standard 
work  animal,"  and  two  oxen  are  reckoned  as  equivalent  to  one  horse  or  mule. 
The  horses  and  mules  raised  in  the  county  were  never  worked  till  they  were  three 
years  old,  or  over.  In  order  to  arrive  at  the  number  of  "  standard  work  ani- 
mals," the  immature  mules  and  horses  are  estimated,  and  their  number,  together 
with  50  per  cent  of  the  oxen,  are  deducted  from  the  total  number  of  mules, 
horses,  and  oxen. 

*^The  number  of  work  oxen  are  estimated  to  be  20;  counting  each  a  half,  de- 
ducts 10  from  the  number  of  "  work  animals." 


275] 


APPENDIX 


275 


TABLE  XII » 
Select  Farm  Expenses  and  Receipts,  Chowan  County,  N.  C.  :  1800-1910 


Labor : 

Farms  reporting number. 

Cash  expended. .    dollars  . 

Rent  and  board  furnished dollars  . 

Fertilizer : 

Farms  reporting number. 

Amount  expended dollars  . 

Amount  expended^  per  acre  of 

improved  land dollars  . 

Feed: 

Farms  reporting number 

Amount  expended  .  dollars  . 

Receipts  from  sale  of  feedable 

crops dollars  . 


1880 


5.043 
0.14 


1890 


8,146 
0.25 


1900 


46,900 


'5.750 
0.45 


[910 


513 

81,246 

8,911 

791 
63,800 

1.89 

377 
15.007 

1,214 


*  Source :   U.  S.  Census  Reports, 

^  Calculated  from  this  table  and  table  vi. 


276 


APPENDIX 


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277]  APPENDIX 


277 


^  In  the  valuation  of  seines,  all  boats,  shore  apparatus,  and  seine  grounds  are 
included. 

*  The  number  of  operators  in  each  instance  are  estimates;  but  these  estimates, 
as  well  as  all  others  in  connection  with  fishing,  are  based  upon  information  ob- 
tained from  twenty  or  more  practical  fishermen  (both  employers  and  employees) 
living  in  various  parts  of  Chowan  and  adjoining  counties,  and  from  my  own 
knowledge  of  conditions.  The  average  number  of  either  men  or  women  operators, 
per  unit  of  any  class  of  tackle,  may  be  found  by  dividing  the  figures  in  columns  5 
and  8,  respectively,  for  the  class  of  tackle  in  question,  by  the  corresponding 
figures  in  column  2. 

^  Columns  5  and  8  are  obtained  by  multiplying  the  estimated  number  of  men 
and  women,  respectively,  required  to  man  each  unit  of  the  class  of  tackle  desig- 
nated, by  the  number  of  units  in  that  cla^s. 

*  The  number  of  weeks  is  the  estimated  average  per  unit  in  each  class  of  tackle 
designated. 

^A  "man-week,"  and  a  "woman-week,"  is  the  labor  for  one  week  of  one 
man,  and  of  one  woman,  respectively.  The  number  of  the  former  for  any  class 
of  tackle  is  the  product  of  the  corresponding  figures  in  columns  5  and  6;  and  of 
the  latter,  of  columns  8  and  9. 

*  Since  hand  seines  were  fished  only  intermittently,  the  women  came  only  when 
it  was  expected  they  would  be  needed,  and  then  were  paid  for  cutting  by  the 
I  coo.  These  facts  account  for  the  fewer  number  of  weeks  accredited  to  them 
than  to  the  men  in  this  class  of  tackle.  This  is  the  estimated  average  amount  of 
time  which  they  put  in  each  season  arovmd  1880. 

'  Estimated. 

^  In  pound-net  fishing,  the  men  who  fish  the  nets  are  able  to  take  care  of  the 
cutting  till  about  the  first  of  April,  since  the  catch  up  until  then  is  usually  light. 
For  this  reason,  women  cutters  are  needed  for  only  a  few  weeks  of  the  season. 
On  the  river  the  cutters  are  paid  by  the  looo;  on  the  sound  some  are  paid  by 
the  1000  and  some  by  the  day.  The  number  of  weeks  given  is  for  the  full  time 
for  which  payment  was  made. 

'  It  is  estimated  that  on  an  average,  there  was  one  boat  to  three  nets.  At  this 
time  they  were  rigged  with  sail,  hence  more  were  required  than  when  using  gas. 
Again,  every  fisherman  had  his  own  boat,  and  some  of  them  had  only  one  or 
two  nets. 

'°  Before  the  introduction  of  gasoline-boats  for  tending  nets  it  took  about  twice 
as  many  men  to  handle  a  given  number  of  nets  as  it  does  now.  This  accounts  for 
a  larger  proportionate  number  of  men  for  pound-nets  in  1880  than  in  1914. 

*^  This  estimate  is  little  more  than  a  bare  guess,  since  no  one  seems  to  have  any 
▼ery  definite  idea  as  to  the  number  of  yards  of  gill  netting  fished  in  1880.  All 
agree  that  the  number  was  small.   The  estimated  value  includes  all  appurtenances. 

^^The  number  of  pound-nets  were  taken  from  the  records  of  the  coimty  sher- 
iff, who  has  to  collect  an  annual  tax  on  each  pound-net,  and  on  each  ico  yard» 
of  gill  netting. 


278  APPENDIX  [278 

'*  These  figures  are  the  estimated  average  number  of  men  engaged  for  16  weeks 
and  are  based  upon  the  known  number  of  nets,  and  such  statements  as  the  follow- 
ing regarding  the  number  of  men  required  to  fish  a  given  number  of  nets : — 

"The  men  can  fish  20  nets  and  handle  from  15,000  to  20,000  herring  per  day, 
extra  help  is  needed."     O.  C.  Byrum,  Edenton. 

"  I  employ  from  7  to  8  hands  for  the  entire  season  to  operate  30  nets."  H» 
G.  Wood,  Edenton. 

"From  the  middle  of  January  to  the  middle  of  April  only  three  men  are  needed 
to  fish  15  nets  and  cut  the  fish.  Three  men  can  fish  from  20  to  25  nets  until  the 
daily  catch  exceeds  io,coo.  From  the  middle  of  April  on,  from  i  to  4  extra  men 
are  needed,  if  the  catch  is  more  than  io,coo  or  15,000  for  a  15-net  stand.  An 
extra  man  is  required  for  each  additional  7,000  to  10,000  per  day."  R.  D.  Boyce, 
Tyner. 

"  I  use  7  regular  men  for  23  nets."    J.  A.  Woodard,  Edenton. 

Besides  the  regular  men,  all  fishermen  employ  extra  help  when  the  fish  are 
running  heavy. 

**  It  is  estimated  that  on  an  average  there  is  one  boat  to  every  10  nets,  averag- 
ing $200  in  value. 

^^  The  records  of  the  sheriff  show  that  in  1914  the  tax  was  collected  on  40,300 
yards.  It  is  customary  for  a  fisherman  to  take  out  license,  not  for  the  number  of 
yards  of  nets  he  owns,  but  for  the  nun.ber  he  expects  to  keep  in  the  water :  one 
needs  about  half  as  many  more,  since  they  must  be  taken  out  for  cleaning,  drying 
and  mending.  Hence  it  is  estimated  that  license  was  taken  out  for  not  over 
two-thirds  of  the  amount  of  the  actual  netting  owned. 

^"  Besides  three  men  on  the  river,  six  men  on  the  sound  took  out  license  to  fish 
300  yards,  or  less,  of  gill-net  in  19 14.  Fishermen  inform  me  that  no  one  fishes 
so  small  an  amount  (their  euphemistic  way  of  saying  that  some  people  neglect 
to  go  thru  the  formality  of  taking  out  license  for  all  the  netting  they  fish),  so 
I  am  counting  two  men  to  each  set  of  license,  and  an  additional  two  to  each 
set  authorizing  the  fishing  of  more  than  one  crop.  Since  there  were  issued  38 
licenses,  8  of  which  were  for  more  than  one  crop  (only  one  exceeded  two  crops), 
on  the  basis  set  forth  we  should  bave  92  men.  A  few  of  these,  however,  were 
not  occupied  all  the  time  with  fishing  and  some  fished  short  seasons.  For  these 
reasons,  the  number  is  cut  down  to  75. 

"Two  men  with  one  boat  can  fish  a  "stand  "  or  "  crop"  (2,250  yards),  keep* 
ing  two-thirds  of  it  in  the  water  all  the  time.  Thirty-eight  men  took  out  license 
in  19 14.  Each  one  of  these  had  to  have  at  least  one  boat.  Eight  of  them  fished 
more  than  one  crop,  so  needed  two  row  boats.     This  would  give  us  46. 

'^ Those  fishing  far  from  their  landing  places  usually  use  a  gas  boat  for  towing 
'them  in  and  out.  It  is  estimated  that  as  many  as  20  of  them  have  these  boats, 
which,  on  an  average,  cost  about  $500  each.     Some  cost  as  high  as  ^1,400. 

'*  Many  who  fish  gill-nets  also  fish  pound-nets,  and  land  everything  at  the  same 
place,  having  no  special  shore  apparatus  for  handling  the  gill-net  catch;  but  even 
i»o,  a  certam  part  of  the  capital  thus  invested  should  be  reckoned  as  capital  en- 
gaged in  gill-net  fishing.    The  amount  here  given  is  a  conservative  estimate. 


279] 


APPENDIX 


279 


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28o  APPENDIX  [280 

*  For  1880,  the  number  of  pound-nets  and  the  number  of  yards  of  gill  nets  are 
not  definitely  known,  but  are  estimated  from  numerous  interviews.  The  num- 
ber of  seines  has  been  furnished  by  men  interested  in  fishing  at  the  time.  For 
1914,  the  number  of  pound-nets  and  the  number  of  yards  of  gill-nets  were  taken 
from  the  records  of  the  sheriff,  and  their  location  given  by  him. 

The  catch  is  based  on  the  amount  of  fishing  tackle  operated  at  the  dates  given, 
and  the  estimated  average  annual  catch  for  the  different  units  of  such  tackle, 
taking  five-year  periods — 1880-4,  and  19 10-14. 

The  price  per  1000  is  the  estimated  average  for  the  season's  catch  of  each 
class  of  tackle.  Generally  speaking,  the  later  the  season,  the  cheaper  the  fish. 
In  the  early  part  of  the  season,  in  addition  to  the  scarcity  value,  the  fish  are 
better  in  quality,  and  so  sell  for  more  even  when  salted.  The  sound  seines  put 
in  three  or  lour  weeks  earlier  than  the  river  seines,  and  herring  started  in  the 
sound  at  from  $15  to  $10  per  icoo.  By  the  time  the  river  seines  had  begun 
catching  any  to  speak  of,  they  were  usually  down  to  from  $3  to  ^4.  Furthermore, 
sound-caught  herring  are  in  a  better  condition  than  those  river-caught— they  are 
fatter  and  not  so  many  of  them  spawned  out — and  so  when  caught  even  at  the 
same  time  as  those  on  the  river,  are  worth  more.  This  fact,  in  connection  with 
the  fact  that  the  pound-nets  on  the  sound  begin  to  catch  fish  earlier  than  those 
in  the  river,  is  the  basis  for  placing  the  price  of  sound-caught  pound-net  fis;h  50 
cents  per  loco  higher  than  river-caught  pound-net  fish. 

Pound-net  herring  sold  on  the  beach  for  50  cents  per  1000  less  than  seine  her- 
ring, even  under  the  same  market  conditions,  because  they  were  liable  to  damage* 
both  by  being  left  in  the  nets  too  long  and  in  being  brought  from  the  nets  to  the 
shore  on  occasions  when  there  was  little  or  no  wind.  People  buying  fish  to  put 
up,  much  preferred  those  seine-caught.  Many  of  the  pound-net  men  made  little 
preparation  for  sailing  down  fish,  and  so  frequently  dropped  their  prices  even 
more  than  50  cents  below  the  seine  men,  in  order  to  attract  the  carters. 

The  hand-seine  herring  have  been  priced  low,  because  the  hand-seines  never 
caught  any  except  when  the  river  was  full  of  fish  and  consequently  low-priced. 


28l]  APPENDIX  281 


TABLE  XV 

Horse  and  SteamPower  Seine  Fisheries  in  Chowan  County,  N.  C,  in 
1880,  AND  the  Number  of  Yards  of  Seine  Fished  at  Each  * 

ON    the  CHOWAN    RIVER 

Fisheries  Yards  of  seine 

Montrose   600 

Woodley's i,2CO 

Winfield  1,000 

Bill  Holly 1,750 

Cofield i,8co 

Total 6,350 

ON  THE  ALBEMARLE  SOUND 

Drummond's  Point 2,500 

Greenfield 2,500 

Robert's  (Long  Lane)  2,400 

Long  Beach 2,400 

Sandy  Point 2,300 

Athal 2,200 

Skinner's  Point 2,300 

Total 16,600 

*  My  chief  authority  for  the  length  of  the  different  river  seines  is  John  Parish, 
Hertford,  N.  C.  This  gentleman  fished  seine  on  the  Chowan  river  from  1865  to 
1878,  inclusive.  My  authority  for  the  length  of  the  different  sound  seines  is 
Frank  Wood,  Edenton,  N.  C.  Mr.  Wood  ovv^ned  and  fished  for  twenty-eight 
years  one  of  the  biggest  and  most  modern  seines  on  the  sound. 

The  figures  here  given  are  for  the  seine  proper,  or  netting.  In  addition  to  this, 
there  was  hauling  rope,  which,  on  an  average,  was  about  one  and  one-half  times 
the  length  of  the  netting.  Thus  a  seine  put  down  as  2,500  yards  long,  was  some 
6,000  yards  long,  or  between  three  and  a  half  and  four  miles,  if  the  hauling  rope 
be  included. 


282 


APPENDIX 


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288 


APPENDIX 


[288 


TABLE  XXIII  ^ 
Church  Communicants  of  Chowan  County,  N.  C:  1890  and  1906 


Denominations  ^ 


Baptist  (white) 

Baptist  1  colored 

Methodist  Episcopal  South . . . . 

Methodi«;t  Episcopal   

Methodist  Protestant 

African  M  ethodist  * 

Colored  Methodist  Episcopal  • . 
African    Methodist    Episcopal 

Zion 

Protestant  Episcopal 

Othtr  Protestant  Bodies 

Koman  C  athoiic 

All  Denominations 


Communicants 


June  I,  1890 


Number 


1.747 
1,247 

93 


39 

i»357 
134 

»7 

4,634 


Per  cent  of 
total 


37-7 

26.9 

2.0 


0.8 

29.3 
2.9 

0.4 

ICO 


Dec.  30,  1906 


Number 


4,685 

294 

75 

19 

1,207 


158 
26 

19 
6,483 


Per  cent  of 
total 


72.3 

4.5 
1.2 

c>'3 
18.6 


2.4 
0.4 

0.3 
100 


'  Compiled  from  ihe  special  reports  on  churches  in  1890  and  in  1906  by  the 
U»  S,  Bureau  of  the  Census. 

'The  U.  S.  Census  Reports  make  no  mention  of  the  Friends,  or  "Quakers," 
in  the  county.  There  are  probably  some  thirty  or  forty  of  this  persuasion  within 
its  borders. 

•The  colored  and  the  white  Baptists  are  here  given  all  together. 

^  Includes  all  colored  Methodists  at  the  time  of  the  enumeration  in  1906. 


289] 


APPENDIX 


289 


TABLE  XXIV* 

Church  Communicants  of  Chowan  County,  N.  C,  Compared  with 
Population  15  Years  Old  and  Over:  1890  and   1906. 


SUBJECT 

June  I, 
1890 

Dec.  30, 
1906 

9,167 
5,234 

4,634 
50.6 

10,955  ' 
6,463 

59.0* 
6,483 

59.2 

PoDulation  I C  vears  old  and  over  . .  .Der  cent 

{""liiirpVi  pomrmiTiipjint*  ......  ..... .x\f^x  rPTit  nf  nnnnljitinTi 

*  The  calculations  in  this  table  are  based  on  data  found  in  various  U.  S.  Cen- 
sus reports. 

2  The  average  monthly  increase  of  Chowan's  population  from  June  i,  1900  to 
April  15,  1910,  was  8.819.  The  population  for  Dec.  31,  1906,  is  approximated 
by  adding  to  the  population  for  June  i,  1900  (10,258)  8.819  for  each  additional 
month  (79).    The  product  of  79x8.819=697. 

3  The  number  of  people  embraced  in  the  various  age  groups  are  not  recorded 
by  counties,  so  the  per  cent  of  the  population  15  years  old  and  over  in  the  county 
is  reckoned  the  same  as  that  for  the  state.  Taking  this  per  cent  of  the  county's 
entire  population,  gives  the  absolute  number  15  years  old  and  over. 

*  This  is  an  average  of  the  percentages  for  1900  and  for  1910. 


INDEX 


Animal  husbandry,  88  ff. 

Apples,  66  ff. 

Ashe,  S.  A.,  24 

Ash-heap,  216  f.,  218  f. 

Ashes,  54  f. 

Babies,  at  church,  200  fif.,  208 

Bacon's  Rebellion,  32 

Bancroft,  Geo.,  24,  25,  30  f. 

Barring  off,  58  f. 

Bassett,  J.  S.,  239,  243 

Berkley,  Wm.,  23,  32 

Books,  157  f.,  177  f. 

Brickell,  John,  25,  29  f. 

Brick-making,  113  fif. 

Buffaloes,  244  ff. 

Buildings,  private,  219  ff.,  229  ff. 

Burnt  dirt,  54  ff. 

Byrd,  Wm.,  of  Westover,  25,  27  ff. 

Cart,  description  of,  47  ff. 

Carters,  128  ff.,  135  ff.,  141  f. 

Cattle,  53,  54,  89;  beef,  68  f.;  dairy, 
68  ff. 

Chowan  county,  size  and  location  of,  1 7 

Church,  popularity  of,  195  ff.;  power 
and  demands  of,  196  ff.;  meetings  of, 
197  ff.;  music  at,  202,208;  doctrines 
of,  202  ff.,  208  ff.;  social  features  of, 
204  ff.;  changing  attitudes  towards, 
210  ff.;  loss  of  prestige  of,  211  ff. 

Church  buildings,  199  f.,  207 ff.;  seating 
arrangements  of,  199  ff.;  spitting  on 
floors  of,  200  f.,  207 

Church  grounds,  198  ff.,  207  f. 

Church  population,  206 

Climate,  21  ff. 

Clothing,  225  ff.,  232  f.,  237 

Commerce,  prerequisites  of,  127  ff.; 
articles  of,  133  ff. 

Communication,  means  of,  128  ff.,  139  ff. 

Cooking,  105  f.,  222  ff. 

Cooking  utensils,  222  ff. 

Corn,  56  ff.,  60,  62,  64,  85  ff. 

Corn  gauge,  57 

Corpse,  190  f. 

291] 


Cotton,  58  ff.,  63  ff.,  83  ff.,  249  ff.;  bale 
of,  63  ff. 

Cotton  ginning,  63  ff.,  112  ff. 

Cows,  252;  (see  Milk  Cows,Cattle,Dairy) 

Crop-rotation,  55,  58 

Crops,  method  of  planting,  56  ff.,  59; 
cultivation  of,  57  ff.,  80  ff.;  chief, 
63  ff.;    increase    in    production  of, 

85  ff.;  diversification  of,  254 
Dairy  products,  71  f. 
Deading,  42 

Dillard,  Dr.  Richard,  218,  252 

Dogs,  menace  of,  to  sheep-raising,  68, 

252;  at  church,  201  f.,  208 
Drawbacks,  present-day,  257  ff. 
Drummond,  Wm.,  23 
Ducks,  76,  77 
Durant,  Geo.,  23 

Dwellings,  215,  217,  219  ff.,  229  ff. 
Edmundson,  Wm.,  32 
Eggs,  76  f.,  78  f. 
Enclosures,  for  cattle,  54;  for  dwellings, 

215  f.,  217  f. 
Factories,  115  f. 
Fairless,  Jack,  244  ff. 
Farms,  size  of,  45  ff. 
Farm  implements,  46  ff.,  80  ff. 
Fence-lock  dirt,  54 
Fencing,  44  f. 
Fertilizer,  commercial,  53  f.,  61,  8l  f., 

86  ff. 

Fish,  consumption  of,  104  ff.;  manner 

of  cooking,  105 
Fish-catch,  quantity  of,  98 ff.,   103  ff.; 

value  of,  160  f.,  103  ff. 
Fish  monopoly,  93  ff. 
Fish-offal,  54,  55 
Fishing,  capital  and  labor  employed  in, 

91  ff.,  104  ff.;    recent  developments 

in,  102  ff. 
Fishing  season,  91  ff. 
Flies,  213  ff.,  217 
Flusser,  Lieutenant-Commander  C.  W., 

244,245 

291 


292 


INDEX 


[292 


Fodder,  65  ff. 

Food,  104  ff.,  223  ff.,  230  fF.,  237 

Forage,  65  ff. 

Fox,  Geo.,  32 

Fruit,  66  ff".,  88 

Fruit  culture,  88  f. 

Funerals,  189  ff". 

Furnishings  of  households  and  kitchens, 

221  ff.,  230  f. 
Gangs,  180  ff. 
Gearing,  50 
Geese,  76,  77  f. 
Gill-nets,  92,  93 
Grapes,  66  ff. 
Grave-marks,  192  ff. 
Grave-yards,  192 
Harbors,  lack  of,  239,  243  f. 
Harper's  Magazine,  49 
Hay,  65  (see,  Fodder) 
Helper,  H.  R.,  246  ff. 
Hilling,  59,  60  ff. 
Hoes,  50 

Hog  cholera,  73  ff. 
Hog-killings,  72  ff.,  181  ff. 
Hogs,  53,  71  ff.,  98  ff.;  cost  of  raising, 

74;  breeds  of,  74  ff.,  88  ff. 
Horses,  51  f.,  67,  92  f. 
Immigration,  31  ff..  35  ff. 
Jones,  W.  N.,  249  ff. 
Labor,  supply  of,  144  f.,  146;  method  of 

securing,   145  ff.;    hours  of,  146  f.; 

white  female,  150  ff.;  colored  female, 

153  ff.;    changing  attitude  towards, 

253  «. 
Land,  clearing  of,  42  ff. 
Lawson,  John,  24,  25,  26  ff. 
Literacy,  1 74  ff.,  238 
Log-rollings,  181  f. 
Lords  Proprietors,  23;  agrarian  policy 

of,  239  ff. 
Lumbering,  by  foreign  operators,    121 

ff.;  by  local  operators,  122  ff.;  effect 

on  agriculture  of,  123  f. 
Mail  service,  128,  139 
Manufacturing,  87;  type  of,  107  f.,  115 

ff.;  articles  produced  in,  107  ff.;   role 

of  women  in,  1 10  f.;  capital  and  labor 

employed  in,  iii,  116  ff.;  passing  of 

household,  118  ff. 
Manufacturing  plants,  115  ff. 
Manures,  53  ff.,  61,  81  f.,  87 
Marie,  54,  55 
Marriages,  1 84  ff. 
Merchants,  134  ff.,  141  ff. 
Milk  cows,  68  ff.,  89,  252 


Mortgages,  249  ff. 

Mosquitoes,  214  f.,  217 

Mules,  51  f.,  67,  92  f. 

Music,  in  church.  202  f.,  208  f.;  in  pri- 
vate homes,  226  ff.,  232  ff. 

Musical  instruments,  226  ff.,  232  ff. 

Newspapers,  157  f.,  177  ff. 

Oats,  63,  64 

One-crop  system,  251  ff. 

Oxen,  51,  53,  83,  84 

Pastures,  67 

Peanuts,  85;  thresher  for,  82 

Peaches,  66 

Pears,  66 

Peas,  61,  64,  65,  81 

Pictures,  227  ff.,  233  ff. 

Plows,  50 

Population,  growth  of,  33  ff.;  rural  and 
urban,  34  ff. ;  origin,  color,  and  nativ- 
ity of  present,  36  f, 

Post-office,  128 

Potatoes,  sweet,  58,  60,  63,  65,  85,  255; 
white,  63,  65 

Pound-nets,  92  ff.,  loi  ff. 

Poultry,  75  ff.,  78  f.,  88,  90 

Preachers,  types  of,  203  ff. 

Precipitation,  21 

Privies,  home,  216,  218;  church,  199, 
207 

Progression,  factors  of,  252  ff. 

Public  schools,  158  f.;  equipment  of, 
158  f.,  168  ff.;  value  of  equipment  of, 
164  ff.,  169  ff.;  teachers  in,  159  ff., 
170  ff.;  length  of  term  of,  160  f.,  173 
f.;  course  of  study  in,  161  ff.;  classi- 
fication in,  161  ff.;  instruction  in, 
162  ff.,  172  ff.;  expenditures  for,  164 
ff.,  170  ff.;  attendance  at,  165  ff.,  173 
ff. ;  salaries  paid  by,  1 72  ff . ;  local  tax 
for,  167  ff.;  feminization  of,  170  ff. 

Pulverizers,  50  f.,  80  f. 

Pumps,  217  ff. 

Quakers,  30,  32 

Rail  cart,  49 

Railroads,  129  f.,  140  ff.,  252  f.,  256 

Range,  free,  67,  242 

Readmg,  157  ff.,  176  ff. 

Retrogression,  factors  of,  243,  246  ff. 

Roanoke  inlet,  depth  of,  22 

Robinson,  J.  H.,  246 

Saunders,  W.  L.,  33 

Saw-mills,  124 

School  teachers,  159  ff. 

Schools,  private,  174  f.  (see,  Pubhc 
schools) 


293] 


INDEX 


293 


Seine    crews,   size  and    character    of, 

96  f.;  work  and  fare  of,  96  ff. 
Seines,  92  f.;  hand,  92  ff.;   power,  92, 

95  f . ;  shooting  of,  95  ff. 
Seining,  fascination  of,  10 1  f. 
Settlements,  time  of  first,  22  f. 
Settlers,  origin  and  character  of  first, 

24  ff. 
Sewage,  53  f. 
Sheep,  68 
Slavery,  246  ff. 
Soil,  nature  of,  19  f.;  preparation  of, 

52  f.,  80  ff. 
Soy-beans,  85;  thresher  for,  82  ff. 
Standard  work  animals,  51,  84  ff. 
Steam-mills,  112  f.  (see.  Saw-mills) 
Stumps,  42  ff. 
Swamp-mud,  54 
Telegraph,  128  f.,  139 
Telephone,  130  ff. 


Timber,  value  of,  in  1880,  42  f,  I2i  f.; 
variety  and  disposition  of,  in  191 5, 
124  ff. 

Timber  situation,  1 21  f.,  125  ff. 

Time-system,  249  ff. 

Threshers,  for  peanuts,  82;  for  soy- 
beans, 83  ff. 

Traders,  128  ff. 

Transportation,  129  ff.,  140  ff. 

Travel,  228  f.,  234  f. 

Turkeys,  76 

Visiting,  179  ff. 

Wages,  144  ff.,  147  ff. 

Wagon-roads,  130  ff.,  141  f. 

War,  Civil,  243  ff. 

Water-mills,  iii  ff. 

Water  ways,  129  ff.,  141 

Wells,  215  f.,  217  ff. 

Wheat,  64,  85 

Woodward,  Lieut.  Thos.  J.,  245 

Woods,  mold,  54 


VITA 

The  writer  was  born  the  25th  of  June,  1878,  in  a 
little  clearing  some  six  miles  northeast  of  the  Chowan 
River  and  twenty  miles  north  of  the  Albemarle  Sound. 
Beginning  at  the  age  of  eight,  he  attended  "the  old- 
field  school,"  from  three  to  four  months  annually  till  he 
was  seventeen:  the  remaining  months  were  devoted  to 
earning  a  livelihood  at  sundry  occupations — principally 
farming  and  lumbering. 

In  the  fall  of  1899,  he  entered  Wake  Forest,  a  small 
denominational  college,  from  which  he  received  the 
B.  A.  degree  in  May  1903.  Each  summer  vacation 
during  this  period  was  spent  in  traveling  for  the  pur- 
pose of  earning  the  wherewithal  to  meet  the  expenses 
of  the  college  course.  For  two  years  after  graduation, 
he  was  employed  as  a  traveling  salesman.  The  school- 
year,  1905-6,  was  spent  at  Stanford  University;  that  of 
1906-7,  at  the  University  of  Chicago,  where  he  studied 
under  Laughlin,  Small,  Vincent,  and  Davenport,  and  re- 
ceived the  M.  A.  degree  in  June  1907.  In  February 
1908,  he  went  to  Europe  and  spent  two  semesters  in 
the  University  of  Berlin,  where  he  heard  such  men  as 
Wagner,  Schmoller,  and  Harnack. 

During  1909-10,  he  studied  at  Columbia.  The  next 
year  was  passed  at  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  in 
the  capacity  of  Assistant  in  the  Wharton  School.  While 
there  he  had  the  privilege  of  studying  with  Patten  and 
Kelsey.     In   1911-12,  he  was  a  fellow  at  the  New  York 

29s 


296  VIIA 

School  of  Philanthropy.  The  years  1911-15  were  spent 
at  Columbia  in  class-room  work,  and  in  the  preparation 
of  this  dissertation.  In  1915-16,  he.  held  an  Instructor- 
ship  in  Economics  at  the  University  of  Colorado.  Dur- 
ing the  present  academic  year  he  has  been  engaged  in 
completing  this  dissertation  and  reviewing  his  subjects. 
At  Columbia  he  has  had  courses  with  Professors 
Seager,  Seligman,  Chaddock,  Fetter,  Mitchell,  Giddings, 
Simkhovitch,  Mussey,  Shotwell,  Robinson,  Suzzallo,  and 
E.  L.  Thorndike,  including  seminars  with  the  first  two 
mentioned. 


T.L  ni\6 


"-^. 


